Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ua94/6/18 Stephen Flora Student / Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Stephen Flora during his years as a student at Western Kentucky University.

Ua1c11/127 Stephen Flora Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs donated by WKU alumnus Stephen Flora, taken for class and College Heights Herald.

(Plant)Ing Traditional Roots: Exploring An Impact Of Environmental Shifts On Traditional Phytotherapy Practices In The Cusco Region Of Perú, Nicole Elizabeth Wilmot

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the potential outcomes of environmental shifts on plant-based medical practices in the Cusco region of Peru. Located in the Andes mountain range, at a high elevation, the environment varies immensely, specifically in the various types of native plants in the region. Historically, using plants as natural forms of medicine or healthcare has been deeply rooted in many indigenous communities, traditions, and cultures globally. Environmentally, there have been potential changes and shifts in temperature, water, and soil that affect the nutrition and health of plants to maintain their beneficial properties. Due to various factors, adaptations or shifts to …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of 13 Going On 30, Brynn Olverson

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

The film 13 Going on 30 is an iconic and nostalgic film for many, but more specifically for young women emerging into adulthood. This film is best classified as a coming-of-age film. Thirteen-year-old Jenna goes through the process of turning thirteen years old and emerging into middle school. Jenna craves to be accepted by the cool girls and is blinded by the idea of popularity which in turn ruins her lifelong friendship with her neighbor and best friend Matt. Jenna’s life was turned upside down when she woke up thirty years old, living in her thirty-year-old body, and working her …

Arianism Revised: The Re-Emergence Of An Infamous Heresy, Mia K. Hardy

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

Arian heresy, a Trinitarian heresy that suggests the members of the Trinity differ in essence, function, and rank, has existed in Christianity for centuries but hasn't often recaptured the mainstream discussion of orthodoxy. That is, until the 1970s. Since then, the available literature surrounding the subjects of complementarianism, eternal subordination, the Holy Trinity, and Arian philosophy has grown, and the overlap between these factors cumulated into what was arguably one of the most divisive theological debates within modern Evangelicalism. What factors contributed to the reemergence of this centuries-long debate in modern times? The overarching goal of this work is to …

How Can Law Enforcement Use Technology To Protect Citizens Justly?, Zach Kantenwein

Emerging Writers

This paper explores the danger of emerging artificial intelligence technology perpetuating racial injustice in law enforcement and how police can ensure the protection of citizens amid this information age. We dissect a real-world case in which AI predictive policing technology resulted in alarming racial discrimination against American minority citizens. We discuss the possible explanations for this result and explore the limitations of artificial intelligence technology. Furthermore, we brainstorm methods for ensuring American citizens' just and constitutional protection as new technology is developed and tested. We propose implementing transparency laws that make the details about any policing technology and surveillance available …

Friends In Fiction: Bonding With Fictional Characters Introduced Through Fictional Narrative Positively Affects And Interplays With The Psychology And Social Behaviors Of Adults To Influence Engagement, Vishnupriya Alavala

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Just as people can form relationships with each other, they can befriend and interact with characters. As broadening media outlets continue to introduce fictional characters, it is vital to understand the effects relationships with characters, referred to as parasocial phenomena, have on individuals. In turn, this will offer a new perspective on the effects of engaging with fiction. Bonding with fictional characters introduced through television or print narratives affects and interplays with the psychology and social behaviors of adults. Most studies support the positive effects of parasocial phenomena in terms of personality, mindset, and social skills. Other studies state that …

An Investigation Of Empathy In Hcd, Zoey Lofgren

Scripps Senior Theses

Abstract

In this study, we investigated empathy within a human-centered design context. While empathy is a well-researched subject within the field of psychology, there is little experimental research on its application in design. As such, the term “empathy” is often thrown around with a lack of clarity about what it actually means in design courses. Empathy is a complex psychological phenomenon that allows us to respond to and understand others’ emotions, but it is unable to be “turned on.” This study specifically aims to address the question of whether or not empathy is actually used within design. Participants completed two …

Subjectivity As A Predictor Of Adjective Ordering Preferences For Heritage Spanish Speakers, Louise Anne Schiele

Scripps Senior Theses

Adults, as well as children, tend to present adjective ordering preferences in their use of multi-adjective strings. For example, the ordering of “big blue bird” rather than “blue big bird” is reliably preferred for speakers of English. Subjectivity has been shown to be a robust predictor of these adjective ordering preferences, where less subjective adjectives are preferred closer to the noun. Still, much of the previous work on adjective ordering preferences has centered a monolingual experience, and has not considered if multilingual speakers differ in their presentation of these preferences, in any of the languages they speak. This study focused …

Understanding Dictators' Violent Repression And How It's Remembered, Juliet Welk

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the use of violent repression by dictators and the ways in which that violence is remembered, particularly through the lenses of literature and film. The first chapter will deal with the questions of when dictators choose to use violence as opposed to other forms of repression and against whom the violence is used. To do so, it will employ select cases to test a number of possible answers. The second chapter, written in Spanish, will analyze the memory of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, focusing on the empowerment of previously-silenced voices. The third chapter, written in Italian, …

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Rita Nealon, Sarah Neal

COPS/Metro

Sister Rita talks about the horrible conditions of the roads on the Westside of San Antonio back in the 1970 and how they were much better when she came back to San Antonio in the1990. Sister Rita tells a story of two girls who were very poor and had to walk home in 18 inches of water because of flooding and how their house door was made of particle board. Sister Rita also talked about how proud she was of the kids who became teachers and nurses despite their poor living conditions and parents being immigrants or not speaking english. …

(Meta-)Physical Artworks: Digital Augmentation In Art Observation, Macy A. Toppan

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Augmented art— the subgenre of art that incorporates physical and digital artwork— is a rapidly growing field driven by advancing technology and a new generation for whom that tech is a given. Yet the presence of media like augmented and virtual reality in exhibition remains a controversial subject. Rather than focusing on the many theoretical debates about whether digital pieces can qualify as "good" art, we study it in practice through the eyes of the casual art observer. This paper highlights the audience in a within-participant study that asked viewers to take in a physical sculpture intentionally built with virtual …

Housing Equity In Golden Gate Village, Nicole White

Social Justice | Senior Theses

For generations, the African American community has faced many forms of housing discrimination that have created major inequalities in their everyday lived experiences (Lockwood, 2020). This study explores the long-lasting effects of discriminatory housing policies in creating disparate housing conditions within the public housing community in Marin City called Golden Gate Village, as well as the role of the Marin Housing Authority in practices of displacement and neglect. The methodology for the study included seven different interviews with Golden Gate Village residents to obtain knowledge about the community as well as grasp an understanding of the lived experiences of the …

Is West Virginia A Haven For Disabled Workers? An Evolving Story, James V. Koch, Robert M. Mcnab

Economics Faculty Publications

With a particular focus on West Virginia, this study utilizes state-level monthly panel data over 13 years (2010-2022) to examine the determinants of the rates of application of individuals for Social Security Administration disabled worker income payments (SSDI) and the initial recommendations of those applications for approval by the states. Application rates are particularly sensitive to the educational attainment of state populations and approval rates to economic conditions. However, in contrast to media coverage and public perceptions, both the number of applications for SSDI and approval rates have been declining nationally and in West Virginia.

Presenting Past People: Storytelling Through Prehistoric Garment Reconstructions, Floor Huisman, Anna Zimmermann, Ronja Lau, Karina Grömer

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

This paper argues that we need to focus on past people (rather than just objects) in our narratives and museum displays to engage museum visitors more effectively. It will demonstrate that we can use a combination of well-researched physical and digital prehistoric garment reconstructions to implement more people-centered approaches also used in living history, which bring the past to life and allow visitors to literally come face-to-face with long-dead people. In this way, visitors can relate to past people on an emotional level, which helps them to learn much more about past life than many traditional displays. After outlining how …

Frontmatter For Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, And Culture Across Millennia, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Louise Quillien, Kalliope Sarri

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Title and copyright pages, Acknowledgments, Contents, Prefaces.

We believe this volume has the potential to contribute to the advancement of European scientific excellence and competitiveness, fostering a deeper understanding of the cultural, technological, and societal significance of textiles and clothing in shaping European identity and heritage through the millenia. We hope that the anthology will find a wide and interested readership, and that it will inspire many new research projects in the field of textile history.

Technical And Technological Analyses Of Excavated Textiles, Christina Margariti, Judith Goris, Petra Linscheid, Agata Ulanowska

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles are particularly complex and labor-intensive structures, thus their constructive elements, such as fibers and yarns, as well as the final textile products (e.g., threads, cords, fabrics, and applied decoration) reveal a range of important technical, technological, and sociocultural information. In this paper, we discuss the analysis of excavated textiles at two levels:

1) Technical analysis that offers basic information about the qualities of examined textile samples.

2) Technological analysis that provides insights into technology, social relations of production, and the level of craft specialization or production modes.

Both analyses offer new evidence for environmental resources, sustainability, trade, and exchange, …

Investigating Organic Colorants Across Time: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Use Of Madder, Indigo/Woad, And Weld In Historical Written Sources, Archaeological Textiles, And Ancient Polychromy, Paula Nabais, Cecilie Brøns, Magdalena M. Wozniak

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Organic dyes have been used from the earliest times to provide color primarily to textiles, but also as a colorant in painting. Such organic dyes could create a wealth of colors, depending on the availability and know-how of resources. These dyes are usually organic in nature, and primarily obtained from different plant sources. Unfortunately, the characterization of natural organic colorants in textiles and artworks is still a challenge. The difficulty of analyzing these materials is sometimes allied to the frequent impossibility of micro-sampling, and the frailty of the objects. Many techniques, such as HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and SERS (Surface-Enhanced …

Towards Textile Narratives: A Cross-Over Perspective On Textile Imagery In Statuary, Iconography, And Literature, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, Juliane Müller, Marisa Kerbizi

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles and clothing constitute a fundamental element of our cultural past, present, and future. Therefore, they were also represented in many mediums, such as iconographic depictions and literature. Images are a source of visual and mental illustration and are often dependent on the viewer’s perspective. As a result, the representations of textiles convey social constructions and their cultural perception. Their study is the focal point of this article: The ways in which textiles and clothing are described by the imagery shown in Greek and Roman statuary and iconography, as well as in contemporary Albanian literature and mythology.

Representations illustrate the …

Young Romans: Status, Dress, And Gender, Mary Harlow, Lena Larsson Lovén

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

The demographics of the Roman world suggest that it was a world full of children. Demographers argue that in order simply to maintain population levels in a period where life expectancy was very short by modern standards, and infant mortality high, a woman should, on average, have six children, on the assumption that not all would live to adulthood. Despite much research in the last fifty years, children still remain partly invisible in the Roman world. This is primarily because they leave little evidence produced by themselves and are seen through the prism of adult eyes. Inevitably, given the nature …

Narrative And Material Tools Of Resistance: Mobilizing Textile Crafts, Heritage, And Fashion In The Context Of The Invasion Of Ukraine (2022–2023), Magali-An Berthon, Sophia Hayda, Tetiana Krupa, Yuliia Lazorenko, Marie-Louise Nosch

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In 2022–2024, textile and fashion scholars came together to write an anthology sharing a new vision of European history as seen through textiles, in the COST Action EuroWeb. During this period, the continent was still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and was then faced with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Contemporary European history will be markedly defined by the ongoing war in Ukraine. One remarkable aspect of this conflict is the way textiles and dress appear daily in a variety of media outlets, mobilized as visual and semiotic means to communicate issues of war …

A Sensory Perspective On High-Ranked Women’S Dress In The 8th To 4th Century Bc In The Mediterranean And Central Europe, Karina Grömer, Susanna Harris, Audrey Gouy, Cecilie Brøns

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In the late 20th century, the study of western science was dominated by a philosophical approach to evidence as text and meaning. In archaeology, material culture was treated like text, to be read through systems of signs, symbols, and indices put together in syntax. For studies of dress, this was influential in understanding dress as a cognitive system compiled to create identities and meaning. In this approach, textiles, fastenings, hairstyles, and gestures are presented as signs and symbols used to form a statement about identity, to be read by others. There was a focus on the visuality of dress and …

Burning Fear, Amy Dorie

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Climate change is leading to more intense and devastating wildfires that lead to tragic loss of life and property (Cal Fire, 2018; Sinco et al., 2023) and disturbing environmental impacts (OECD, 2023). The purpose of this textile design was to create an activist design that communicates the fear and anxiety felt by those impacted by wildfires. First-hand accounts of those experiencing wildfires were researched as inspiration for the textile design. Based on the accounts, a selection of wildfire-related images were cropped in irregular shapes, placed around the canvas, and blended evoking a sense of chaos and devastation. An image of …

Caring Cloth Praxis: Ethics Of Loss, Practices Of Remembering, Suzanna James

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This research, in continual development as a part of early PhD study, is currently entitled ‘Ethics of Loss, Practices of Remembering’ and locates itself within the field of cultural sustainability. It is foregrounded by my MA thesis entitled ‘Caring Cloth’ and works in response to the words of Louise Bourgeois: ‘the needle is used to repair damage, its claim to forgiveness.’ My own socially and environmentally regenerative textiles practice considers the way in which personal practices of remembering can be developed in response to cultural sustainability.

This textiles practice develops explorative visual textile art and social textile practice research which …

23 Extinct Redwork Quilt Project: Repairing Relationships With Our More-Than-Human Kin, Stitch By Stich, Heather Kerley

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 2021, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed 23 species for delisting from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction. I would like to present my redwork quilt, Mourning Lost Kin (23 Extinct), which honors each of these species. I plan to share my process from researching and sketching each species to the embroidering of each block and the over-all construction of the quilt. But most importantly, I would love to share the stories of these species, the layers of meaning in this quilt, and the many questions it raised for me over the course of two years. …

Public Patriotism, Silent Dissent: Women And The Making Of Senninbari In Wartime Japan, Mariko Nagai

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the early years of the so-called “Fifteen Year War” (1931–1945), Japanese women and girls created senninbari when men received draft notices to serve. Often worn around soldiers’ waists underneath their uniforms, these sash-shaped talisman were embroidered with 1,000 red knots, each knot made by a woman. In a time when the Japanese government censored dissenting voices against its militaristic and nationalistic foreign and domestic policies, this government-encouraged gesture of stitching senninbari became one of the few ways in which women could voice their personal protests within patriarchal gender expressions (良妻賢母 “good wife, wise mother”). Senninbari’s design evolved with regional- …

Textile As Cultural Technology: The Evolution Of Robert Rauschenberg’S Jammers, 1975–6, Katya Oicherman

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Robert Rauschenberg suggested that any material has a “humanitarian reportage” or a history built into it, that opens art to the “strange and unpredictable” experience only comparable to everyday reality. Developing this idea, I will focus on the Jammers, a series of works with significant textile presence produced in 1975–76, and discuss how Rauschenberg’s relationship to textiles evolved from treating them as “materials” to recognizing them as cultural technologies. In 1975 he was on a fellowship in Ahmedabad, India, a period of intense experimentation.

Textiles were already a significant presence in his art, playing a subservient role of materials …

Textile Ways Of Thinking As A Trauma-Informed Design Tool To Research And Understand Communities, Smrti Ganesan, Nishanth Srikanth

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

There has been a shift in methodologies in the broader world of design. Today, co-design and participatory methods are a vital part of the modern designer's toolkit, and designers are finding new ways to interact with communities and design solutions that are more responsive to the actual needs of those communities.

Textile design has historically been a medium for expressing and processing traumatic experiences, reflecting individual and collective traumas in society. Textiles have also historically served not only as a form of artistic expression but also as a powerful tool in activism, particularly within feminist movements. Recent developments have seen …

Solidarity Dividend With Us Wool And Community Engagement To Address Socioeconomic Inequities, Helen X. Trejo, Angela Becerril

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As a long-standing natural fiber, wool provides an opportunity for community engagement and reflexive practice. Our process involved sourcing wool from US sheep and wool farms in lower income areas and hands-on textile development, and intersectional reflection. Being at a Hispanic Serving Institution, informed approaches to engage with concepts, such as the “zerosum paradigm” and “Solidarity Dividend” based on Heather McGhee’s NY Times Best Selling book “The Sum of Us.” It explores how racism affects intergenerational wealth among minorities. The zero-sum paradigm is the idea that progress is a tradeoff; benefits to some is at an expense for others. The …

Lavenz, Valenz, Levenxë, Lavexha, Lavenzka: Woven Felted Blankets From The Korçë Region In Southeastern Albania, Alexis Zoto

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper will look at and document colors and patterns and motifs of woven and felted blankets from the Korçë region of southeastern Albania. Very little is published on these textiles. This paper will document the disappearing and under appreciated textile, and why are they no longer understood or valued. In Albania and in Albanian diaspora communities this textile has had different names in prewar, prewar Korçare dialect and now.

I will be drawing from information gathered interviewing parishioners who volunteered to share their heirlooms and information gathered from examining the textile(s). These heirlooms belong to members of multiple generations …