Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Conservation Decision Making And Agricultural Land Leasing - An Experimental Investigation Of The Role Of Gender, Diya Ganguly, Simanti Banerjee, Christopher Gustafson

Cornhusker Economics

This research investigated the impact of landowner gender and of the different types of contract leases offered by them to a male tenant, on the conservation (or non-conservation) choice made by the tenant. Specifically, we investigate if a) female and male landowners offer different rental contracts and b) whether tenants choose different actions based on the landowner’s gender. For this purpose, we implemented a controlled, gender-context-loaded economic experiment with university students, in which we tested contract and land use choice under different treatments for three types of rental contracts – fixed rent, fixed rent with penalty, and fixed rent with …

Linking Risk Preference, Women’S Empowerment, Farm Investment And Household Well-Being, Samuel Olusesi Olumide

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A nuanced understanding of intra-household dynamics can inform the design of more effective empowerment and agricultural investment policies. By integrating household risk preferences and empowerment dynamics, this work offers valuable insights into the complex mechanisms driving household welfare and provides a framework for future interventions to promote gender equality and economic development in rural settings. This thesis addresses three core hypotheses: first, that the spouses of risk-seeking male heads are more likely to be disempowered compared to those of risk-averse male heads; second, that households with risk-seeking male heads and disempowered spouses are likely to invest more in farming activities; …

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

U.S. Government Agency Podcasts, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Presents podcasts from U.S. Government agencies which can be discovered through the U.S. Government Publishing Office's Catalog of Government Publications. Agencies whose podcasts are presented include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Government Accountability Office (GAO), National Park Service, Department of Justice, Federal Reserve System, and U.S. Naval War College.

Género Y Resiliencia En La Amazonía Peruana: Las Experiencias Y Respuestas De Agricultoras Indígenas Ante El Cambio Climático, Zoe Klausner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El cambio climático antropogénico está redefiniendo rápidamente las relaciones humano-ambientales, especialmente en la Amazonía peruana, donde más de 66 comunidades indígenas enfrentan mayores sequías y temperaturas, afectando profundamente sus medios de vida. Crucialmente, desde la visión ecofeminista central a esta investigación se subraya que las mujeres indígenas experimentan los impactos del cambio climático más severamente y son a menudo los líderes en el fomento de la resiliencia ambiental. Esta investigación explora cómo las agricultoras indígenas de la Amazonía peruana viven el cambio climático y sus estrategias de adaptación y resiliencia. El trabajo de campo se realizó en la comunidad Ese'Eja …

Guna Community Perspectives On Attributes, Changes, And Revitalization Of Nainu Agroecological Practices In Isla Tigre, Guna Yala Comarca, Panama, Neshima Vitale-Penniman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indigenous agroecological systems are gaining international recognition for their capacity to conserve biodiversity while promoting food security and sovereignty. Nainu is the ancestral agriculture of the Guna people of eastern Panama, and it is characterized by a successional growing system that imitates the regeneration of the tropical forest in which it is practiced. This research aimed to (a) characterize how nainu is practiced by farmers in Isla Tigre, a community in Guna Yala, (b) characterize how nainu practices have changed over time, and (c) describe how farmers and community members in Isla Tigre are envisioning and actualizing the revitalization of …

Fear, Racism, Agriculture: The Drive For Japanese Internment, Brandon James March

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The focus of this dissertation is the timing of the forced evacuation of the ethnic Japanese population from the West Coast in 1942. This work focuses on three key factors driving the timing of the evacuation: racism, security concerns, and agriculture. Racism has been studied and written about extensively; however, an overview of this factor is critical as it directly influenced the removal of Japanese American citizens in addition to Japanese immigrants. This dissertation will focus on the intellectual origins of racism and prejudice by focusing on key figures and tracing the ideas and beliefs and how they influenced the …

Maine Hunger Dialogue And Climate Action Summit Safeguarding Food Systems From A Warming Planet, University Of Maine Cooperative Extension

General University of Maine Publications

Promotional flyer for the Maine Hunger Dialogue and Climate Action Summit. "Join students, faculty, and staff from colleges, community colleges, and high schools across the state for this one-day conference. Participants will have an opportunity to network, discuss food security, and climate change, and find solutions to combat these issues within our own communities."

Fauna As Fieldworkers: An Analysis On The Use Of Animals As A Form Of Organic Weed And Pest Management In Modern Viticulture, Mariana Del Carmen Campano

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Recent data on the current state of pesticide use in global agriculture suggests serious concerns over significant overuse and negative effects on both environmental and human health, and current trends only suggest continued increases in future global pesticide use. Without prompt, large-scale intervention, this global abuse of chemical pesticides spells significant threats of not only continued harm to global health and environmental quality, but also to the long term viability of agricultural lands and the growing threat of pesticide resistant insects and weeds. Various methods have been explored in the realm of integrated pest management (IPM), but a current lack …

Pearley, Lamont Jack, B. 1974 (Fa 1426), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1426. Audio interviews by WKU student Lamont Pearley of the husband-and-wife proprietors of Need More Acres Farm in Scottsville, Kentucky. They discuss their lives as farmers, agricultural practices, and sustainable farming. One interview includes a transcript and the other includes an index/log.

We Need Faithful Farmers, Dale E. Vos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"A faithful farmer who cares is performing worshipful work."

Posting about the calling of agriculture from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/we-need-faithful-farmers/

A Comparative Plague Study Of Cacao Fungal Disease In Cacao Pods Within Monocultures And Indigenous Agroforests In Ecuador’S Napo Province, Seamus Mccarthy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study analyzes the composition of three major fungal diseases in Theobroma cacao fruits compared between monocultures and chakra agroforests in the Napo province of Ecuador with the goal of noting similarities and differences in the disease composition between the two systems, as well as investigate possible variation within this poorly understood category of agroforest to better structure future studies. Cacao pods on sampled trees were counted and fungal infections identified visually and by touch. Chakra systems were selected in the communities of Cinco de Enero and Seis de Marzo to the Southwest of Tena, Ecuador. Monoculture data was collected …

2023 Nebraska Women In Agriculture Conference, Jessica Groskopf, Katie Hothem

Cornhusker Economics

Includes a recap of the 38th Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference held in February 2023 in Kearney, Nebraska.

Ua1c11/124 Charles Taylor Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs removed from Charles Taylor's personal papers.

What Makes Mad Honey “Mad”? An Investigation Into The Obsession Of The Himalayan Wild Cliff Honey, Codi Farmer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mad honey is a rare variety of cliff honey found in the mountainous regions of Turkey and Nepal and has been harvested by Indigenous groups for centuries. In Nepal, it is found on high-hanging cliffs that people risk their lives to face, but what makes this honey so special to cause generations of Nepalis to brave the formidable heights? Through a series of reading primary and secondary sources, watching first-hand accounts of honey hunting, and interviewing honey hunters, filmmakers, authors, and laypeople alike, I work to find the answer to the puzzling question – what makes mad honey "mad"? In …

El Parque De La Papa Y El Centro Internacional De La Papa: Un Caso De Estudio De Una Colaboración Única Para La Conservación De Diversidad Biocultural, Molly Orr

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El Parque de la Papa, un territorio biocultural indígena en Cusco, Perú, es un sitio de conservación in situ de variedades de papas nativas apoyado por la ONG Asociación ANDES. En 2004, entró en un convenio con el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) para la repatriación, restauración y seguimiento de las papas bajo el cual 410 variedades de papa fueron devueltas al Parque. El convenio ha formado la base para una relación continua entre CIP y el Parque; han desarrollado capacitaciones, investigaciones participativas e intercambios de conocimientos científicos y tradicionales. La colaboración entre CIP y el Parque es un …

Total Prevention: A History Of Schistosomiasis In Japan, Alexander Bay

History Faculty Articles and Research

In Japan, schistosomiasis was endemic in Yamanashi Prefecture and a few other hotspot areas where the Miya’iri snail lived. The parasite’s lifecycle relied on the intermediary Miya’iri snail as well as the human host. Parasite eggs passed into the agrarian environment through untreated night soil used as fertiliser or through the culture of open defecation in rural Japan. Manmade rice fields and irrigation ditches, night soil covered paddies and highly refined growing seasons put people in flooded rice paddies to intensively work the land in the spring and summer. The disease was equally dependent on human intervention in the natural …

Oxen: Status, Uses And Practices In The U.S.A., Encouraging A Historic Tradition To Thrive, Andrew B. Conroy

Faculty Publications

Oxen in the United States of America have played an important role throughout its history. Unlike other countries,oxen were never completely given up for horses, mules, or tractors. Instead, the culture of keeping oxen has been maintained by a small group of teamsters in the North- eastern states collectively called New England. Their continued presence has been largely due to agricultural fairs and exhibitions where they have been used in competition for the last 200 years. Ox teamsters were sur- veyed in 2021via social media using Qualtrics. The 423 ox teamsters responding owned 1791 oxen in 39 states, with the …

Sewing And Dressmaking In Martha Mcmillan's Day (1891), Elizabeth G. Allen

Martha McMillan Research Papers

This paper describes the process of sewing and dressmaking in America from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s and provides historical context for Martha McMillan's discussion of sewing and dressmaking in her 1891 journal.

"The Third Power": James A. Everitt And The American Society Of Equity, Mark Kristian Myrdal

Masters Theses

The late 19th century marked a golden age for farmers’ movements in the United States. Crushing debt, deflation, increased urbanization, and industrial acceleration generated much discontent in America’s agricultural communities, and unleashed “a Populist moment” of farmer protest and organization. While the early 20th century witnessed significant economic improvement, farm organizations continued to operate and, in some cases, even thrived. Established in 1902 by seed merchant and newspaper editor James A. Everitt of Indiana, the American Society of Equity was one of the first major farmer’s movements founded in the twentieth century and helped to spread the concept of cooperative …

Earth Stories: A Narrative Understanding Of Farmlife In Pokhara, Nepal, Grace Holmes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Humans love to tell stories. The purpose of this Creative ISP is to collect stories, of the plants and of the earth, render them through quotations and summary, and then discuss and reflect on how these stories could describe the relationship between people and the land. I hope a narrative understanding of our dependence on agriculture can bridge the gap in modern society that separates us so fundamentally from the earth that we live on.

Los Impactos Del Cambio Climático En Las Comunidades Aymaras En Putre, El Valle De Azapa Y Arica, Lindsey Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: How is climate change affecting Aymara communities in Putre, the valley of Azapa, and Putre?

Objectives: To understand the effects of climate on communities by 1) describing which environmental problems exist and their impact on agriculture and ranching, 2) understanding the patterns of migration away from the ancestral land, 3) exploring the connections to the social determinants of health that exist with these change, and 4) analyzing the significance of these changes in the agriculture for the communities’ traditions and connection to the land.

Background: Aymara communities have historically inhabited agricultural and ranching lands in …

Restoring Dignity In The Gardens Of Ekhenana, Jordan Buser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study investigates the lived experiences of eKhenana, a shack settlement under the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo, as they attempt to navigate the increasingly unequal urban landscape. The research presented is focused on theories of urban marginality, food sovereignty, and dignity. I advocate that, in the margins, dignity can be restored through the implementation of a communal garden. Presented as a case study, this research centers the voices and experiences of the commune. The paper first depicts a brief timeline of eKhenana, and explains how they have created not just a place to live, but a community and a …

January Highlights From The College Of Natural Sciences, Forestry, And Agriculture, College Of Natural Sciences, Forestry, And Agriculture

General University of Maine Publications

Weekly update from the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture. Stories include Dean Diane Rowland's tour of the Dwight B. Demeritt Forest in Old Town; the receipt of a $225,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to establish a Farm to School Institute; Brian Olsen, professor ornithology, being interviewed about the January 2022 sighting of a Stellar's sea eagle in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

“To Multiply Corn Two-Hundred-Fold”: The Alchemical Augmentation Of Wheat Seeds In Seventeenth-Century English Husbandry, Justin Niermeier-Dohoney

Arts and Communication Faculty Publications

Agricultural reform movements proliferated in seventeenth-century Europe. For many who sought to make farming more economically productive, the practices of chymistry offered a way to accomplish these goals. Placed in the context of the development of a “vegetable philosophy,” or a theory of generation and growth across mineralogical and botanical domains, this article examines the application of chymical techniques in the attempt to enhance wheat seeds through seed-steeping and “fructifying” experiments among seventeenth-century agricultural reformers, particularly in England. I focus on three main sources: instructional husbandry manuals describing how to create “fructifying waters” to fertilize these seeds, the writings of …

"Rusticall Chymistry": Alchemy, Saltpeter Projects, And Experimental Fertilizers In Seventeenth-Century English Agriculture", Justin Niermeier-Dohoney

Arts and Communication Faculty Publications

As the primary ingredient in gunpowder, saltpeter was an extraordinarily important commodity in the early modern world. Historians of science and technology have long studied its military applications but have rarely focused on its uses outside of warfare. Due to its potential effectiveness as a fertilizer, saltpeter was also an integral component of experimental agricultural reform movements in the early modern period and particularly in seventeenth-century England. This became possible for several reasons: the creation of a thriving domestic saltpeter production industry in the second half of the sixteenth century; the development of vitalist alchemical theories that sought a unified …

Regenerating Agroecosystems By Overcoming Human Exceptionalism In Designing For Increased Equity Of Benefits From Ecoservices, Ali Loker, Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Our commentary explores three critical issues related to ecosystem services. First is how ecoservices are currently designed and implemented primarily for human benefit without concern for how these impact other species. We conclude that awareness of this imbalance is the first step toward meaningful change. Second we observe that human exceptionalism guides most decisions, and ask whether we can overcome this mind-set to embrace ecoregeneration and design of resilient and mutually beneficial agroecosystems. Our attitude toward the challenge and moving toward greater humility about human roles that guide management decisions in the ecosystem is a requisite for change. Third we …

Man V.S. Wild: An Analysis Of Language Used Regarding Human-Wildlife Conflict In The Kibale National Park Community, Western Region, Uganda, Sophie Perfetto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

If humans are to live sustainably and in harmony with wildlife in the vicinity of Protected Areas, policy makers, and government authorities need to make informed decisions with consideration to the needs of local communities. For this to happen, policy makers must understand the perceptions of local communities and take local perspectives into account. As language is at the root of perception, language was studied in the context of its role in shaping local perceptions of human-wildlife conflict and consequential conflict mitigation strategies. Six communities around the Northern region of Kibale National Park, Uganda, were studied, with sites located in …

Solanum Jamesii As A Food Crop: History And Current Status Of A Unique Potato, David Kinder, John Bamberg, Lisbeth Louderback, Bruce Pavlik, Alfonso Del Rio

Pharmacy Faculty Scholarship

Solanum jamesii is a wild potato found in the US southwest. There is ample evidence that this potato was used by ancestral Puebloans as a food source, where some researchers think it was used as a starvation food while others consider it to be regular food source. Currently this potato is being grown by Native Americans, notably the Navajo, as a specialty food as well as a food crop. There are several attributes to this potato that make it especially suitable for development as our climate changes and food needs become more demanding, including its drought tolerance and ability to …