Digital Commons Network^™

Representation In Kenya, Its Diaspora, And Academia: Colonial Legacies In Constructions Of Knowledge About Kenya's Coast, Jesse Benjamin

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper explores the construction of knowledge in Kenya in the context and aftermath of colonialism and underdevelopment. Those communities that were politically and economically marginalized in Coast Province over the past century were also displaced in terms of academic opportunities, resulting in fewer social science scholars from Mijikenda and other non-Swahili communities in both Kenyan and diaspora universities. Underdevelopment studies in Africa and Kenya are briefly reviewed, and the colonial history of asymmetric social relations at coastal Kenya is traced. Finally, key debates over identity and history are examined within this context and shown to be exacerbated by diasporic …

Beyond The Business: Social And Cultural Aspects Of The Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Alisha R. Winn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation research is an examination of the social and cultural dynamics of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company (ALIC) in Atlanta, GA. During the Jim Crow era (and post Jim Crow era), the ALIC provided economic mobility through employment, home loans, life insurance, and community solidarity. The company was one of the largest and most successful African-American financial institution in the country during the 20th century. It was founded in 1905 by Alonzo F. Herndon, a prosperous black barber and entrepreneur who rose from enslavement to become by 1927 the wealthiest African American in Atlanta. Renamed as the Atlanta Life …

Languages And Loyalties: Shaping Identity In Tunisia And The Netherlands, Krista Moore

Macalester International

No abstract provided.

Multiculturalism And Its Discontents, Catharine R. Stimpson

Sacred Heart University Review

Catharine R. Stimpson is University Professor at Rutgers University and Director of the MacArthur Fellows Program. This talk was presented at Sacred Heart University on October 4, 1993. A version recently appeared in Impact: Journal of OPENMIND (Fall, 1993), 65-76.

Deconstructing Collective Identities And Violence: Analytical Perspectives From Indonesia, Brandon Scott Sternquist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to establish a more applied, analytical approach to analyses of collective identity and violence while providing insights into the dynamics of the regions of Indonesia considered. By focusing on two regions of Indonesia - Aceh and Kalimantan - which are populated by distinct peoples and have experienced violence in contemporary times, this study contributes to the expanding literature on the social dynamics of identity and violence. To ensure a more practical approach within the study, concepts and frameworks which have contributed to discussions of the nature of identity and acts of violence are utilized. …

Tops Off To Dancing: An Exotic Form Of Nightlife, Jessica Sanspree

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This ethnographic research investigates the culture of exotic dancing in two exotic dance clubs in Bowling Green, Kentucky. By conducting interviews with a former exotic dancer and completing ethnographic observations in the field of an exotic dance club, I explore how exotic dancers in Bowling Green create and perform sexuality as a method of making money. I examine the rules and regulations, such as "Dancer's etiquette," established and enforced by dancers in order to enforce social order. Furthermore, I assess my informant's perception of identity regarding her role as an exotic dancer, including her reaction to the negative stigmas that …

The Flow Of Nectar And Blood: Maya Philosophy And World Vision, Ferret

Departmental Papers (Philosophy)

No abstract provided.

Recovering The Temple Mount The Politics Of Place, Memory And Identity, Britney Summit-Gil

Theses & ETDs

The Temple Mount/Haram es-Sharif has been a center of religious worship and political turmoil for millennia. It is the site of an important Islamic shrine and mosque, and the Western Wall�the holiest site in Judaism. Jewish tradition marks it as the site of Solomon�s Temple, Herod�s Temple, and the Third Temple of the Messianic Age. The following explores the Temple Mount through Jewish literature and Israeli archaeology to understand why, in recent years, the site has drawn national and global attention. The survey is framed in the context of social memory and identity to understand the role the Temple Mount …

Identity, Language Practices And Ideologies Among Nepali-Bhutanese In West Michigan, Trevor Dewaard, Kathryn Remlinger

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

The languages that we use are a result of our identities and the social contexts and related roles in which we participate. The language practices of one small community of ethnic Nepali-Bhutanese who were revoked citizenship in Bhutan, expelled into refugee camps in Nepal for nearly twenty years, and who now reside in Grand Haven, Michigan were of interest here. Identity, Language Practices and Ideologies among Nepali-Bhutanese in West Michigan builds on previous research that examines the relationship between language choice and socio-cultural factors such gender, age, language proficiency, education, citizenship, and context among multi-lingual speakers (Baquedano-López 2009, Booth 2009, …

Structuring Liminality: Theorizing The Creation And Maintenance Of The Cuban Exile Identity, Jaclyn Colona, Guillermo J. Grenier

Ethnic Studies Review

In this article, we examine the exilic experience of the Cuban-American community in South Florida through the dual concepts of structure and liminality. We postulate that in the case of this exilic diaspora, specific structures arose to render liminality a persistent element of the Cuban-American identity. The liminal, rather than being a temporal transitory stage, becomes an integral part of the group identity. This paper theorizes and recasts the Cuban-American exile experience in Miami as explicable not only as the story of successful economic and political incorporation, although the literature certainly emphasizes this interpretation, but one consisting of permanent liminality …

Flexible Literacies, Cultural Crossings And Global Identities : Three Singaporean Adolescent Boys' Reading And Identity Practices' In A Globalized World, Chin Ee Loh

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case examines the reading and identity practices of three highly literate adolescent boys from an elite all-boys school in Singapore, focusing on how they constructed their identities as global and local citizens through their reading practices. There have not been any studies examining the reading and identity practices of adolescent boys who have had every access to literacy, and this study contributes to much-needed research on youth literacy, identity, and globalization. The data consist of survey and interview data, classroom observations and email reading logs collected from September 2008 to September 2009.

Unsung Voices : The Transformation Of Writing And Identity Of Korean Esl Students In U.S. Secondary Schools, Cheonghwa Cheong

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

Media And Youth Identity In Pakistan: Global-Local Dynamics And Disjuncture, Al-Karim Datoo

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

The paper critically analyzes the engagement of a group of Pakistani urban youth with global cultural flows through media, and their responses to those flows. The discussion mainly centres around an analysis of a re-make of a drama-skit performed by a group of Pakistani urban high school youth during their school’s annual function which could be regarded as a kind of satire providing a cultural critique on the way cultural globalization, through media (especially cultural production through Indian Bollywood film/soap media-industry), is influencing urban Pakistani youth's perception of 'local' values, norms and identities. For the analysis, the paper draws upon …

Traditional Place And Feminist Space The Japanese Tea Ceremony Makes Room For Empowerment, Morgan Boecher

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the tradition of the Japanese tea ceremony as a place for feminist empowerment. I use participant observation and interviews in order to show how this feminine practice can enable women to build their own projects as agents. Tokyo and Kawaguchi, Japan are important sites for the creation and reproduction of traditional and contemporary meaning. The tea ceremony practices of those cities exist within a globalized landscape that adopts binary interpretations that contrast East from West, traditional from modern, and feminine from masculine. This thesis investigates how women doing tea ceremony within this matrix become agents defining their …

An Aboriginal Missiology Of Identity Reclamation: Towards Revitalization For Canada's Indigenous Peoples Through Healing Of Identity, Wendy Peterson

The Asbury Journal

This essay concerns the failure by Canada's Indigenous people to fully apprehend and embrace the Christian doctrine of imago Dei. The concern is founded upon the negative self-perception and perceived inferiority of Aboriginal peoples as less-than the Caucasian majority. Is this a failure of transmission on the part of missionaries, or is it a failure of reception on the part of Aboriginals? The premise is that both the theology of mission and the practice of mission with Aboriginal people must take into account the issue of self-perception and the problem of identity formation. The question is asked, Is there a …

Feminine Identity Confined: The Archaeology Of Japanese Women At Amache, A Wwii Internment Camp, Dana Ogo Shew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1942, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were evacuated from the West Coast to ten different internment camps in the interior of the United States. One of these camps was the Granada Relocation Center, otherwise known as Amache, located in southeastern Colorado. Through the analysis of archaeological material, archival documents, and oral histories, this thesis explores the experiences of Japanese American women interned at Amache. Feminine identity was greatly changed and redefined during confinement. These changes in feminine identity are examined in the public and private arenas of daily life within confinement. The construction of new and altered individual …

Showcase (Concerns Of The Southern Man: From Gatlinburg To Kaohsiung City), Samuel Davis

All Theses

ABSTRACT
One's daily life consists of collecting objects, images, ideas, fears and dreams. These items and concepts do not conjure themselves, but are selected like so many berries in a basket. I question what objects people choose to showcase in their homes, their trophies and shrines. These types of objects serve to validate their owner's beliefs and through their collection, elevate that person's status. In what items does one subconsciously invest their identity?
My work speaks to the value of the collected once transformed. In my practice I juxtapose ideals held separately and simultaneously about the value and import of …

Puppets, Pioneers, And Sport: The Onstage And Offstage Performance Of Khmer Identity, Marel Angela Stock

Theses and Dissertations

Most tourists visiting Cambodia only seek to visit the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. The Cambodian, or Khmer people are capitalizing on this booming tourist industry, but they are also disseminating a more complex Khmer identity through other sites and festivals. This identity simultaneously hearkens back to the affluence of the Angkor Period in Khmer history and looks forward to the modernization of the country. After the reign of the Khmer Rouge, from 1975-1979, which led to what is now called the Cambodian Killing Fields, the Khmer people needed to create a new, hopeful, peaceful identity for their nation. …

Exploring Writing Of English Language Learners In Middle School: A Mixed Methods Study, Robin L. Danzak

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The study's purpose was to assess, through mixed methods, written linguistic features of 20 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in middle school. Students came from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Participants wrote two expository and two narrative formal texts, each in Spanish and English, for a total of eight writing samples each. Additionally, students developed 10 journal entries in their language of choice, and 6 randomly selected, focal participants were interviewed for the qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis involved scoring formal texts at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Scores were analyzed using Friedman's 2-way ANOVA by ranks, …

Exploring Writing Of English Language Learners In Middle School: A Mixed Methods Study, Robin L. Danzak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study's purpose was to assess, through mixed methods, written linguistic features of 20 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in middle school. Students came from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Participants wrote two expository and two narrative formal texts, each in Spanish and English, for a total of eight writing samples each. Additionally, students developed 10 journal entries in their language of choice, and 6 randomly selected, focal participants were interviewed for the qualitative analysis.

The quantitative analysis involved scoring formal texts at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Scores were analyzed using Friedman's 2-way ANOVA by ranks, …

Exploring Social And Group Identity Theories In The Profitability Of Online Communities Targeted Towards Older Adolescents, Daniel V. Giaccio

Honors College Theses

Qualitative research of in depth interviews and picture tests performed on older adolescents was the backbone of my study. A questionnaire was created that explored how older adolescents create and maintain identities on online communities.

My study found that older adolescents are using the internet to maintain their positive self identity yet explore group identities in order to find out where they fit in the world. It used these findings to create innovative implications and recommendations for marketers on how to create a successful online community business model targeting the older adolescent. The answer was simple. Since older adolescents are …

Omengeredakl: Aesthetics Of Sound And Vocal Music In Palau, Birgit Abels

Pacific Studies

Omengeredakl are group chants sung on the islands of Palau, West Micronesia. They stand out from the rest of the repertoire of Palauan vocal music because of certain musical features nor found in other extant Palauan songs. The distinctly Palauan sound of this song type, and how this "audible locality" is manifested in song, has at times been used extensively in the localization of Self, and at times less so. The article argues that this has led to changes in the popularity of omengeredakl over the course of the last century.

The Dialectic Of Idolatry And Profanation: On Discerning The Spirit In Congregational Studies, Lois E. Malcolm

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Communicating Queer Identities Through Personal Narrative And Intersectional Reflexivity, Richard G. Jones, Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is currently a lack of intersubjective research involving human participants and conceptual frameworks that include queer theory. Queer theory's poststructuralist epistemology tends toward desubjectification, problematizing research that relies on participants' self-reports of lived experience. The author proposes that the interdisciplinary nature of Communication Studies, which is situated within the humanities and social sciences, leaves communication scholars well poised to contribute to ongoing metatheoretical and metamethodological conversations regarding queer theory and intersubjective research, particularly in relation to cultures and identities. To contribute to this scholarly conversation, the author utilizes the deconstructionist lens of queer theory to contextualize communication, employs personal …

Contested Histories And Identities: Romani Refugees In Toronto, Julianna Calder Butler

Digitized Theses

This thesis examines the larger themes and processes involved in identity reconstructions, and the appropriation of labels and categories at various levels as part of a struggle by the Roma against their marginalization and persecution. Through a focus on several significant sites of negotiation and contestation where Romani actors encounter and interface with hegemonic institutions and discourses, including current Canadian immigration policies and media coverage, I propose that “identities” invoke historical narratives, whether individual or collective, and are used in diverse ways. This research on the Roma is also useful in understanding the experiences of other refugees and minorities when …

Contested Histories And Identities: Romani Refugees In Toronto, Julianna Calder Butler

Digitized Theses

This thesis examines the larger themes and processes involved in identity reconstructions, and the appropriation of labels and categories at various levels as part of a struggle by the Roma against their marginalization and persecution. Through a focus on several significant sites of negotiation and contestation where Romani actors encounter and interface with hegemonic institutions and discourses, including current Canadian immigration policies and media coverage, I propose that “identities” invoke historical narratives, whether individual or collective, and are used in diverse ways. This research on the Roma is also useful in understanding the experiences of other refugees and minorities when …

Sumbawan Obstetrics: The Social Construction Of Obstetrical Practice In Rural Indonesia, Vanessa Hildebrand

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation examines the ways that the people in the village of Lunyuk, Sumbawa negotiate relationships and identity in their discussions about pregnancy and childbirth. At the center of the analysis are dueling midwives: those with biomedical training: bidan) versus those who use a local indigenous obstetrical knowledge similar to that found in much of Indonesia: dukun bayi). They compete with each other for patients, who are likewise making sense of their position in the world while juggling the pressures from national citizenship, local ethnic membership, Islam, and obstetric knowledge options. Specifically, this dissertation examines how people in this region …

Ethnoracial Land Restitution: Finding Indians And Fugitive Slave Descendants In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This chapter considers how a desire for land and development can lead to a refashioning of ethnoracial identities and identifications. Debates in development studies have centered on culture as an impediment to development. I turn that debate on its head and argue that new assertions of cultural particularity have in certain settings advanced the equity goals of development. The chapter explores the contrasting responses of two neighbouring communities of related African descended, mixed race rural workers who over a 25-year period (1975- 2000), under new laws, were recognized and given land by the Brazilian government. One was identified as an …

On The Road: Struggling, Searching And Opportunities Young Asians In Missoula Seek Their Cultural Identities, Suhan Chen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Where are you from? When do you use ¡°we?¡± The answers to these two questions are easy for people from a single cultural background, but may not be so simple for those young Asians who have grown up and lived in the U.S. but aren¡¯t sure where they belong. This project includes two stories of two young women from Missoula. They have been searching for their cultural identities and have found that the searching will never end. They will probably always be on the road back and forth between the U.S. and their ancestry countries.

Choice And Discovery: An Analysis Of Women And Culture In Flora Nwapa’S Fiction, Mary D. Mears

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation is in the tradition of redressing the critical imbalance that has undervalued or neglected African women writers by considering Flora Nwapa's three best-known novels, analyzing from a feminist and dialogic perspective what choice and discovery mean for Nwapa's female characters in Efuru (1966), Idu (1970), and One is Enough (1981). Flora Nwapa writes about women and their lives, issues, and concerns within a traditional Igbo culture radically affected by British colonialism. As she explores and analyzes many of the characteristics of her tribal group, she posits the women's desires for change, choice, and acceptance within a society in …