Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Review Of: Handrick, Frances. 2019. Amish Women: Work And Change- An Investigation Into The Lives Of Amish Women In Pennsylvania And Ohio., Amy Schlabach

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

I opened the dissertation with hopeful interest. Would “Amish Women: Work and Change” be the factual, realistic view I had hoped for so many times before? The British author, Frances M. Handrick, interviewed 30 Amish women in Pennsylvania and Ohio. She compares our lives with the lives of Amish women 30 to 50 years ago. She also gleans bits of information from other writers and researchers, and the end result is a mixture of fact and the usual stereotypes. I want to recognize that, from what I understand, Ms. Handrick researched and wrote the dissertation for her own use, not …

Performing Amish Agrarianism: Negotiating Tradition In The Maintenance Of Pennsylvania Dairy Farms, Nicole Welk-Joerger

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Amish people have a reputation for being ecologically and environmentally conscientious. As numerous scholars in Amish and Plain Anabaptist studies have demonstrated, Amish views of the environment are diverse and ultimately anchored in the understanding that God made nature for human use. In these cases, Amish views of the environment could be described as much more anchored in traditional philosophical notions of “agrarianism” than “environmentalism.” In this article, I explore how some Amish approach agrarianism with a turn from more traditional farm life toward necessary economic engagement with multi-faceted operations and diversification. Based on intensive ethnographic research and participant observation, …

“Living Document”: From Documents To Documentality, From Mimesis To Performative Indexicality, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In this article, in distinction to documentation as an epistemic understanding of documents, I will discuss the epistemology of documentality as an indexical theory of documental functions, which I will develop through Bruno Latour’s notion of information. This notion of indexicality is different than Suzanne Briet’s notion of indexicality (which I have discussed elsewhere (Briet, 2006)).

I will begin this paper with an historical problem that illustrates the issues of viewing documents as content representation. This is the problem identified by Vincent Debaene (Debaene, 2014) in early and mid-twentieth century French field anthropology of the “two book” phenomenon, which attempted …

More Than Meets The Eye: Proximity To Crises Through Presidential Photographs, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We look at three photographs, each made at a time of profound crisis, in order to tease out notions of proximity. Vision gives us proximity at a distance. Photographs may give us a similar proximity. Human vision depends on experience built up from individual events of seeing. Can a photograph made in a fraction of a second by someone else at some other time and some other place provide anything more than data about some surfaces in front of the lens? Can words and other images from the photographers enhance the viewer’s proximity to the original? Can we make use …

Emergence: Documents In Crisis, Wayne De Fremery

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This essay suggests the etymologies of emergence, emergency, and crisis create a useful framework for theorizing documents. Indeed, the overlapping semantic associations of the words allow for the idea that documents emerge in crisis. The semantic overlap also allows a means for theorizing how documents descend into crisis. Theorizing documents in crisis, the essay argues, usefully complements documentalist theories of documentary representation suggested by thinkers like Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet, as well newer conceptualizations of documentality as conceived by Michael Buckland and Maurizio Ferraris and documentarity as described by Ronald Day.

Bringing Political Upheaval And Cultural Trauma Into Order: A Document-Theoretical Approach To The Social Significance Of Bibliographic Classification Systems, Joacim Hansson

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper explores the ability to define bibliographic classification systems as socially significant documents in a way that goes beyond their immediate function in the information retrieval process. It does so in dialog with theory on documents and documentality, and knowledge organization theory. Two examples show how development of new classification systems address social and cultural structures in periods of rapid social and cultural change and crisis. The first example discusses the design of a classification system for Swedish public libraries in the late 1910s, and the second addresses the re-formulation of the Holocaust experience in American Jewish library classification …

A Lot On My Plate: Family Dishware Serving Up A History Of Global Commercialization, Grace Thanasiu

Student Projects from the Archives

The “Hearthside” shaped plate was created by the Homer Laughlin China Company sometime between 1963 and 1973. My family owns such a plate, and ours originally belonged to a set of plates that was “purchased” by my grandmother, Mary Ruhlin, with books and books full of redemption stamps. Redemption stamps were literal stamps that stores distributed to customers, who could later redeem them for cash or merchandise at affiliated redemption centers that partnered with grocery stores and businesses; redemption stamps functioned as a precursor to the modern loyalty card! The need for a reputable pottery company like Homer Laughlin to …

Humans Of Ua: A University Of Akron Unclass 2020, Kaylie Yaceczko

Student Projects from the Archives

No abstract provided.

Taking A Different Look At The University Of Akron: Researching In The Archives, Katelynn Olsen

Student Projects from the Archives

No abstract provided.

Applying Liberation Psychology Tenets To The Career Trajectory Of The First Chicano Psychologist, Sarah E. Sanders, Alejandra Gonzalez Lopez

Psychology from the Margins

The authors of this paper use a liberation psychology framework to explore the career trajectory of Alfredo Castañeda (1923-1981), the first Latinx individual to earn a Ph.D. in psychology and the first Mexican American to hold a full professorship in the United States. Castañeda experienced a prolific career in teaching and research that began by investigating universal elements in children’s learning and anxiety and ultimately transformed into an emphasis on multiculturalism, cultural strengths, advocacy, and social justice. A combination of data was used to inform the current project, including interviews from Castañeda’s former graduate students, published obituaries and memorial tributes, …

Biographical Data And Black Box Empiricism: Lessons Learned For Algorithmic Assessments In Personnel Selection, Ketaki Sodhi, Marc Cubrich

Psychology from the Margins

As the popularity of biodata in selection assessments grew in the 1980s and into the 1990s, the field of industrial and organizational psychology witnessed many attempts to develop biodata theories and guide the development of biodata items. The insights that emerged from this body of research are increasingly relevant in the current era of big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. More than ever, AI and machine learning are being used to score candidates and make hiring recommendations. Many organizations are using data-driven approaches to develop machine learning and AI algorithms, which are frequently atheoretical, based on correlations or …

An Inquiry Into The Life And Accomplishments Of Dr. Robert L. Williams, Javier Martin-Fernandez, Kiarra King, Jusiah Prowell, Nathan Bitecofer

Psychology from the Margins

Like other fields, the field of psychology can trace its roots back to the pioneering efforts of early scientists, scholars, and professionals. The current commentary fills a gap in psychology's history by providing an inside look into the accomplishments of Dr. Williams. Particular attention is paid to four notable accomplishments: the founding of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), the development of the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity (BITCH-100), the coining of the term Ebonics, and the development of the concept of racial scripting. This is important because our present is a reflection of our past. The more that …

The Importance Of Cultural Context In Rural Education: Historical And Modern Perspectives, Devynn C. Campbell-Halfaker, Margo A. Gregor

Psychology from the Margins

This paper presents a review of the historical context and the prominent debates about rural education that occurred from 1900-1940 and connects current trends in rural education to this history. Outmigration of rural youth and the decline of rural populations spurred the development of the Country Life Commission (Danbom, 1979) which sought to address this problem through rural education reform. Outmigration of rural youth continues to be a concern for rural communities, and the continued and important role of modern education in this phenomenon is discussed. Additionally, the current paper offers a review of other historic concerns regarding rural education …

A Historical And Contextual Review Of The Adverse Psychological Effects Of The Trauma Of Colonialization On Alaska Native Peoples, Gwendolyn Barnhart, Andrew D. May

Psychology from the Margins

Through a historical review, the authors sought to provide an analysis of the adverse psychological effects of the traumatization of colonialization in Alaska Native Peoples. In the context of oppression, the authors discuss the potentially harmful implications of approaching psychology from a framework development largely out of Western philosophical thought and the medical model. In an attempt to be more culturally sensitive to the unique history and needs of Alaska Natives, the contextual FHORT model is proposed as a more appropriate conceptual framework to start from. Details of the various facets of colonialization and their associations and suspected contributions to …

Advocacy In Lgbtq+ Cancer Care: Historical Resilience As A Model For Further Efforts In Psycho-Oncology, Alexandra M. Stookey

Psychology from the Margins

In the United States, an estimated 135,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) people will be affected by a cancer diagnosis in 2020, a significantly higher statistic than equivalent measures in non-LGBTQ+ populations (American Cancer Society, 2020). As the number of sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals affected by this disease continues to increase and intergroup disparities in care become more empirically documented, the need for multi-level advocacy in the field of LGBTQ+ psychosocial cancer care becomes apparent. The current body of literature addressing culturally-informed practices, needs, and barriers to care for SGM people is sparse in psycho-oncology and has …

William Hershey's Profiles In Achievement: The Gifts, Quirks, And Foibles Of Ohio's Best Politicians (University Of Akron Press, 2021) Reviewed In Midwest Book Review, University Of Akron Press

News of The University of Akron Press

William Hershey’s Profiles in Achievement: The Gifts, Quirks, and Foibles of Ohio’s Best Politicians is praised as an “impressively informative study of Ohio politics and politicians” that is “exceptionally well written, organized and presented.”

Contrasting Spaces In Plautdietsch: Language Variation And Change, Roslyn Burns

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In this article, I explore linguistic variation in Plautdietsch through the lens of social variation and the resulting redistribution of linguistic forms across the community. Language change requires variation in a population and a social pathway for the variation to be distributed (or redistributed) across a community. This article explores two systems of variation in the Plautdietsch language as it is used across North America: the so-called traditional dialect system (based on descriptions from Thiessen 1977, Epp 1993, and Rempel 1995, among others), and the vowel system (based on Nieuweboer 1998, Burns 2016a,b, among others). I propose that linguistic diversification …

Ecological Repentance, Emmanuel Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In an age ripe with discovery and analysis regarding anthropogenic pollution and the resultant climate change, a causal ideological explanation is naturally sought. This paper seeks to delve deep into the Christian religion and its relationship to the current climate crisis, as well as discuss whether or not predictions and speculative assertions professed in the famous essay by Lynn White, Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis, hold up when surveyed with a more critical and thorough evaluative lens. This conversation is undertaken under three core considerations: biblical cosmology, what has happened in the world of Christian bioethics since White’s time, …