Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Culturally And Socially Responsive Teacher Professional Learning At The American Museum Of Natural History, Jessica Correa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project consists of a series of professional learning sessions to support teachers in their implementation of Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CR-SE) using the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) as a resource and case study. Through the lens of Historically Responsive Literacy, the series also seeks to reestablish social science as a critical element of natural history for teachers. This series can help teachers see the museum as not only a place to explore life and physical science, but also a place to explore identity, social/emotional development, cultural studies and American History. The project includes resources and directions for …

What Does One Billion Dollars Look Like?: Visualizing Extreme Wealth, William Mahoney Luckman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The word “billion” is a mathematical abstraction related to “big,” but it is difficult to understand the vast difference in value between one million and one billion; even harder to understand the vast difference in purchasing power between one billion dollars, and the average U.S. yearly income. Perhaps most difficult to conceive of is what that purchasing power and huge mass of capital translates to in terms of power. This project blends design, text, facts, and figures into an interactive narrative website that helps the user better understand their position in relation to extreme wealth: https://whatdoesonebilliondollarslooklike.website/

The site incorporates …

Prevalence Of Drifting Osteons Distinguishes Human Bone, Katherine M. French, Sophia R. Mavroudas, Victoria M. Dominguez

Publications and Research

The histological, or microscopic, appearance of bone tissue has long been studied to identify species-specific traits. There are several known histological characteristics to discriminate animal bone from human, but currently no histological characteristic that has been consistently identified in human bone exclusive to other mammals. The drifting osteon is a rare morphotype found in human long bones and observationally is typically absent from common mammalian domesticates. We surveyed previously prepared undecalcified histological sections from 25 species (human n = 221; nonhuman primate n = 24; nonprimate n = 169) to see if 1) drifting osteons were indeed more common in …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Barley As A Human Companion Species - Exploring The Relationship Between Barley And North Atlantic Peoples: 4000 Bc – Ad 1200, Chloe Combs

Theses and Dissertations

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an ancient cereal crop originating in the Fertile Crescent approximately 12,000 years ago and is presently one of the most important cereal crops globally. Barley has a long and complex history. This thesis aims to explore one dimension of this history through the lens of human companion species using archaeobotanical data collected from the islands of the North Atlantic from the Neolithic (4,000 BC) to the Norse period (AD 1200).

Climate Change And Critical Agrarian Studies, Ian Scoones, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Amita Baviskar, Marc Edelman, Nancy Peluso, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the …

Africa’S Coastal Archaeological Record And Climate Change, Michael Murphy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the 1980s, archaeologists have warned about threats from anthropogenic climate change (ACC) to the world’s archaeological record in coastal areas. Until recently, such warnings did not include Africa’s archaeological record. There is a persistent gap in research on climate change and Africa’s archaeological and cultural heritage stretching back before the U.N. established the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the gap and help to narrow it. The approach is to take advantage of the availability of the dataset from the first geographically comprehensive study of climate change and coastal …

Redrawing The Contours Of Care: Ethical Commitments And Gendered Politics In The Work Of Government Psychological Counsellors In Sri Lanka, Nadia Augustyniak

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the last three decades, Sri Lanka has seen a growing popular interest in psychology as a field of professional practice as well as a steady expansion of mental health services. Historically, this shift has been linked to the impacts of political violence (1971, 1987-1989), civil war (1983-2009) as well as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, with local and international trauma and humanitarian interventions shaping recovery and the country’s mental health and psychosocial care infrastructure. More recently, however, psychology and mental health have been increasingly decoupled from the discourse of trauma, entering into everyday life and popular culture through the …

Anth201: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Fall 2023), James Tolleson

Open Educational Resources

Cultural anthropology emerged to study the differences among human beings (and between human and non-human beings). This course will cover the foundations of the discipline, including a critical perspective on anthropology’s ties to European colonialism and the rise of global capitalism. Students will come away with an understanding of how cultural anthropologists study culture, defined as “a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways” (Brown, McIlwraith & Tubelle de González 2020, 6). We will also pay close attention to …

Anth 210: Anthropology Of East Asia, Tomomi Emoto

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Anth 103: Introduction To Archaeology, Timothy Pugh

Open Educational Resources

This course introduces the methods that archaeologists utilize to reconstruct cultural developments of the past and traces the origins of complex social organization in various locations throughout the world. Beginning with the earliest evidence of stone tool production (ca. 2 million years ago), we will examine the interrelationship of complex social organization, population growth, the development of agriculture, writing, social inequality, and cities.

A Review Of Theropithecus Oswaldi With The Proposal Of A New Subspecies, Dagmawit Abebe Getahun, Eric Delson, Chalachew Mesfin Seyoum

Publications and Research

Theropithecus oswaldi darti, as currently understood, is the oldest Theropithecus taxon in the fossil record and the earliest subspecies in the Theropithecus oswaldi lineage. Theropithecus oswaldi darti is typified at the site of Makapansgat in South Africa, and a similar form (T. o. cf. darti) is usually recognized at Hadar, Dikika, some Middle Awash localities, and Woranso-Mille in Ethiopia. This taxon is also tentatively believed to occur in Kenya at Kanam and Koobi Fora and in Member C of the Shungura Formation in Ethiopia. While there is a general consensus that the East African ‘darti’ specimens are …

Diasporic Women’S Mutability In South Asian Postcolonial Literature, Tasnim S. Halim

Theses and Dissertations

Though Western scholarship tends to homogenize South Asian experiences, researchers and novelists shed light on different classes of South Asian postcolonial and migratory women who experience mutability, or the internal and external changes as a trauma response after British colonial rule ended and the 1947 Partition abruptly fractured national identity. Though this mutability has positive and negative transformative qualities, it also allows women characters the power to remove themselves from cycles of oppression, work towards healing, and transforming their physical bodies from sites of repressed trauma to sites of expression and agency. What binds them is not only their physical …

Blacklash: Phenomenological Hermeneutics In Black Dance, Darvejon A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The horrors inflicted on Black bodies, souls, and spirits in the United States during the transatlantic slave trade, the Jim Crow era, and the current era (2023) have a lasting legacy of trauma metabolized through the body and transmuted generationally. Jones uses this data to contextualize the work of Black dance artists as hermeneutic phenomena in which the Black dance artist is a hermeneut tasked with delivering a message of the Black body/spirit complex: “I AM HUMAN. DO NOT KILL ME.” This paper examines how Black dance artists frequently petition for their survival — incessantly subjugated to the interpreter’s empathy, …

Sociology Ethnographic Film Review, Kristen S. Addessi

Open Educational Resources

This is an assignment that gives students options of using different films as examples of ethnographies to understand key issues that occur in our society.

A Race-Police Regime: Nypd Technology And Urban Governance In New York City, Elliott Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation draws on three years of ethnographic and archival research to explore the relationship between technology, policing and race at the NYPD. In focusing on the ways problems are constructed and police power enacted, I explore the more-than-human entanglements in the production of race and the governance of cities under racial capitalism. My overarching claim is that urban governance works through contentious techno-political arrangements I call race-police regimes, which sanction and elicit race by enacting forms of exclusion and belonging. Racial capitalism in New York City, I argue, is governed through a technocratic mode of policing which leverages …

“Investment In Inertia”: Language Ideologies Of Instructors And Students Of Spanish As A Heritage Language, Michael E. Rolland

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When the Spanish-language skills of heritage Spanish learners are disparaged in an academic environment, these learners are at high risk of abandoning further study of Spanish and shifting entirely to English. This dissertation uses mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods, including thematic and discourse analysis, to investigate the language ideologies of instructors and students of Spanish as a heritage language (SHL) and the effects of those ideologies on students’ experiences in SHL college courses. It builds on earlier research on language ideologies in the post-secondary heritage language context (e.g., Carreira, 2011; Loza, 2017; Valdés et al., 2003). I find that …

Naming Venus: An Exploration Of Goddesses, Heroines, And Famous Women, Kavya Beheraj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Humans have been observing and romanticizing Venus for more than 5,000 years. However, mapping its surface has nearly always been impossible, since the planet is shrouded in thick clouds. A breakthrough came just fifty years ago with the invention of radar imaging, leading to the discovery (and naming) of hundreds of new features in a relatively short length of time.

The rapid naming of Venus is a case study on the impact of planetary nomenclature — the process of naming features on other worlds. While the act of naming streamlines communication and humanizes alien landscapes, it is subject to bias, …

Environmental Drivers Of Dispersal In Black-And-White Ruffed Lemurs (Varecia Variegata), Amanda Mancini

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dispersal is a fundamental aspect of primates’ lives, influencing population connectivity through gene flow, driving community structure and assembly, and having important consequences for adaptation and speciation. Primates disperse within an environmental context, with both intervening and local environmental factors affecting the motivation, capacity, timing, and success of dispersal at all phases. Direct evaluations of primate dispersal are challenging given the rarity of dispersal events and the large distances that animals often settle from their departure site, therefore indirect measures– such as the use of population genetic data– are more common.

The field of landscape genetics enables researchers to combine …

Gender & Sexuality In New York Politics, Bianca M. Guerrero

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Ant 211: Cultural Anthropology Summer -Asynchronous Online Syllabus, Antonia M. Santangelo

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for ANT 211: Cultural Anthropology using Open Educational Resources. This is designed for a summer session, asynchronous online course.

Accuracy, Precision, And Efficiency: Comparing Mapping Techniques In Nixtun-Ch’Ich’, Petén, Guatemala, Gabriela Zygadlo

Theses and Dissertations

New archaeological survey technologies have transformed the way in which sites are mapped. Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala has been surveyed in a variety of ways including a theodolite with an electronic distance measurement (EDM), total station (TS), laser imaging, detection and ranging (LiDAR), and photogrammetry. This paper aims to compare various mapping techniques and their accuracy, precision, and efficiency when pertaining specifically to mapping in Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala. The goal is to evaluate which technique is most efficient when mapping in the site by considering the variables of cost, time, and environment of the site. The paper also considers the …

Football Can Save America, Francisco Attie

Capstones

Looking to cure the malaise of our day, I went to the football game, and, in the dying breaths of the match, found something much greater. https://medium.com/@Fran_Attie/football-can-save-america-2bb918f19a97

Countering Dispossession: For Palestinians In The Diaspora, Maintaining Cultural Identity Is A Means Of Resistance, Reem Farhat

Capstones

For decades, Palestinians have pushed back against Israeli appropriation of Palestinian culture, by calling it out online and making efforts to protect it through international organizations. On social media, Palestinians in the diaspora have resisted against erasure and appropriation of their heritage by learning, sharing, and teaching others about their culture online. Chef Nadia Gilbert, embroidery artist Asma Barakat, and TikToker Serena Rasoul have all maintained online presences dedicated to educating their followers on Palestinian culture. To them, practicing these aspects of their heritage in the diaspora is a means of resistance.

https://medium.com/@rfarhat1/countering-dispossession-for-palestinians-in-the-diaspora-maintaining-cultural-identity-is-a-e860d54bb8a9

The Demographic And Socioeconomic Patterns Of New Latino Immigrants In New York City In The 2010s, Qiyao Pan

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the demographic and socioeconomic patterns of new immigrants that arrived between 2010 and 2019 in New York City. It focuses on the characteristics and shifting dynamics of these newcomers in three time periods: 2010-2012, 2013-2015, and 2016-2019.

Methods: This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public …

Education And Employment Trends Among Puerto Ricans In New York City, 1990-2019, Amber Ferrer

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction

This report examines demographic trends in educational attainment and employment among Puerto Ricans living in New York City between 1990 and 2019. The report also observes the relationship between race and gender with employment and education trends.

Methods

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: …

Socioeconomic Conditions Of Foreign-Born And Domestic-Born Latinos In New York City, 1990-2018, Oscar Aponte

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This study focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of the five largest Latino nationalities in New York City (Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Colombians) between 1990 and 2018. The report reveals significant differences in the socioeconomic status of Latinos and other racial and ethnic groups as well as between foreign-born and domestic-born Latinos.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent …

The Socioeconomic Background Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In New York City: Latinos In Corona, Elmhurst, And Jackson Heights, 1990-2019, Oscar Aponte

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report analyzes the socioeconomic conditions of Latinos between 1990 and 2019 in three of the neighborhoods in New York City hit the most by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the number of cases and deaths per capita. The cases per capita in Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods were 1 in 19 people in Corona, 1 in 16 people in Elmhurst, and 1 in 19 people in Jackson Heights, significantly higher than the cases per capita in the rest of the city.

Methodology:

This study uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) for all …

The Ring Quarry Mining Complex: A Preliminary Archaeological Investigation Into Ancient Native American Sites In Northwestern New Jersey, Joseph D. Cusack

Theses and Dissertations

The Ring Quarry Mining Complex (RQMC) in northwestern New Jersey is an archaeological, Pre-Contact Native American mining and habitation complex. The RQMC was a primary source of tool stone in the Vernon Valley of New Jersey for thousands of years. Evidence of human occupation within the study area extends from the Paleoindian through the Contact Period. This study focuses on the ancient chert quarry and surrounding sites across a landscape making up a habitational complex.

Teaching Time; Disrupting Common Sense, Kevin Birth

Publications and Research

In my course “Time” I set out to disrupt the connection between cognitive tools used to represent time (clocks and calendars) and experiences of time. This article documents some of the topics and pedagogical methods I use: using unusual due dates for assignments, making the clock look strange, disrupting the idea of “now,” showing how clocks cultivate gullibility, exploring the different hour systems of the past, criticizing clock-based logics used in primatological research, explaining the theory of special relativity, and exploring the political and economic consequences of sleep loss.