Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond The Hands: Exploring Intersectional Identities Of Black American Sign Language Users, Tatum Turner

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

There is a significant gap in research related to the impact of intersectionality on linguistic identity performance among individuals negotiating multiple marginalized identities. This gap is especially significant among deaf Black and African American individuals who use the American Sign Language (ASL) variety deemed Black American Sign Language (BASL) (Hairston & Smith, 1983). This research aims to identify and discuss the use of the eight distinguishing features of BASL (McCaskill et al. 2011) as indexes of intersectional identities.

My data consists of videos sourced from YouTube, each chosen according to the following criteria: must have at least one self-identifying Black …

The Conditions Of Oregon's Latinx Farmworkers, Kevin Alejandrez

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

The goal of this three-paper dissertation is to better understand inequalities that Latinx farmworkers endure and the ways through which these inequalities can be addressed. As such, this dissertation examines pertinent inequalities Latinx farmworkers experience in the United States, their responses to resulting hardships, and the effects that crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic have in both exacerbating hardship and expanding opportunities to challenge inequitable systems in place. This is done through an intersectional analysis of a multi-year ethnographic study conducted in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

First, paper one, titled, “Subordinate Adaptation: Intragroup Hierarchies Among Blueberry Pickers,” explores the ways in …

Assessing 4-H And Its Circle Of Courage In A Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility: A Case Study, Elizabeth Steering

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This 4-H case study takes place in a psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) in Kentucky. The PRTF provides clinical services to youth that are not able to be safely maintained in their homes due to having demonstrated unsafe or harmful behaviors. Youth admitted to the PRTF stay for an average of three to six months while they receive intensive therapeutic and psychiatric care as well as medical treatment and public schooling. The current case study incorporates programming from 4-H, which is the youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), …

The Inclusion Of Black Social Workers: More Than A Seat-Creating A Culture Of Belonging, Sallie J. Ingram

DSW Capstone Projects

The social work profession has been around for at least 12 decades. During most of this time, Black and White social workers have focused on issues affecting their own races. Unfortunately, social work has been found to have some of the same biases and stereotypes as the society that it serves. Therefore, three products were developed to provide research-based evidence on the importance of inclusion of Black social workers and how this inclusion will benefit social work, and the clients served.

Product One was a systemic literature review focused on answering the research question of whether or not the social …

The Underlying Issue: Acknowledging The Impact The Race-Based Bias Of Some White Teachers Poses For Black Adolescents, Cerenity Leavell-Barker

DSW Capstone Projects

Current literature fails to assess the race-based bias of some white teachers and its impact on the school-to-prison pipeline. The actions of some white teachers due to unconscious or conscious race-based bias can increase race-based stress experienced by Blacks students and lead to racial trauma. Racial trauma is a traumatic experience that can alter this stage of development and have significant impact on the academic achievement of Black adolescents and influence behaviors perceived as negative. The purpose of this capstone is to enhance awareness and knowledge on the traumatic impact the race-based bias of some white teachers poses for Black …

Community-Oriented Policing: Building Trust And Collaborative Relationships With The Black Community, Tunice M. Cole

DSW Capstone Projects

Black people die at the hands of police at a disproportionate rate. In the United States, Black citizens are three times more likely to be killed by police than White citizens. This, along with other factors, has caused a lack of trust, legitimacy, and relationships between police and the Black community. Examining this problem from a socio-ecological and social constructivist perspective suggests that the solution encompasses the use of community feedback and experiences to build and develop a model of community-oriented policing that addresses the issues of the community being served.

Product one of this capstone was a systematic literature …

Beyond Choice: An Intersectional Analysis Of Identity And Labor In Online Sex Work, Shawna F. Felkins

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

This intersectional project seeks to understand the complex labor, social lives, and community building of online sex workers. Building on the work of foundational sex work researchers, this project utilizes in-depth interviews, a survey, social media posts, and published writing and research from online sex workers to understand how marginalization and identity impacts participation and success in online sex work. Providing analysis on how race, gender, class, and ability intersect in the digital sexual marketplace, this project critiques the rise of neoliberal feminism in sex work spaces that stems from the centering of white and otherwise privileged sex workers using …

"Playing The Game": A Case Study Of Latinx Leaders In An Agricultural Youth Organization, Graciela Barajas

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Latinx members of the FFA Organization are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions. When they do get elected to leadership offices, they oftentimes have to accept behaviors that erase their cultural identity. This study aims to find what aspects of their identity they feel they have to give up in order to be seen as a potential state or national FFA candidate. Findings include the participation of the state-officer game, joining cliques that fit the white mold, and overall, assimilation on an individual and group scale. Recommendations include systemic change for state and national FFA staff, agricultural education, and the agricultural …

Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation explores whether and how the re-election prospects faced by trial court judges in many American states influence criminal justice policy, specifically, state levels of incarceration, as well as the disparity in rates of incarceration for Whites and Blacks. Do states where trial court judges must worry about facing reelection tend to encourage judicial behavior that results in higher incarceration rates? And are levels of incarceration and racial disparities in the states influenced by the proportion of the state publics who want more punitive policies? These are clearly important questions because they speak directly to several normative and empirical …

Is Secondhand Discrimination Harmful For The Mental Health Of Black Americans? Findings From A Community Epidemiological Study, Myles Moody

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In recent years, there has been a growing concern about not only the deleterious health effects of direct experiences of racism, but also how individuals are affected by others’ experiences of racism. It has been firmly established that direct exposure to discrimination can negatively impact the mental health of Black Americans and other minorities. But there is a dearth of empirical evidence that may answer the question of how indirect experiences of racism affects health. The purpose of this study is threefold: 1) to examine the social distribution of personal and vicarious experiences of discrimination among Black adults, 2) to …

It’S Not Just Sunday School: Young Children, Race/Ethnicity, And Gender In Three Homogeneous Protestant Sunday Schools, Henry James Zonio

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Current sociological approaches to examining the lives of children approach children as active agents and participants in their socialization. Further, children are considered experts witnesses and interpreters of their own experiences. In the cases of race and gender socialization, interpretive reproduction has been used as a framework to examine how children construct and act on meanings of race and gender. While these interpretive studies illuminate how children interpret and reproduce meanings of race and gender, they do not explicate how children appropriate meanings from their cultural milieu. Consequently, these studies do not consider ways the larger culture enables and constrains …

Race-Related Stress, Resiliency, And Relationship Quality In Black Couples, Melinda Murdock

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Scholars have historically explained Black marriage patterns of instability and dissolution based on White middle-class models that ignore cultural factors and maintain a narrative of dysfunction. The current study examines resilience in Black couples by exploring mediation effects of attribution and dyadic coping processes on race-related stress and relationship quality. The present study used individual data from 131 middle-income Black couples residing in the South, who self-reported on stress, coping, and relationship quality via online survey. Dyadic Coping was predicted to mediate the relationship between Race-related Stress, Attribution, and Relationship quality. Results indicated that individuals who experienced greater stress from …

Recovery After The Rupture: Linking Colonial Histories Of Displacement With Affective Objects And Memories, Aarzoo Singh

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

The notion of home and belonging, specifically in the context of South Asian postcolonial diasporas, is connected to past traumas of colonization and displacement. This paper addresses how trauma, displacement, and colonialism can be understood through and with material culture, and how familial objects and items emit and/ or carry within them, emotional narratives. I turn to the affective currency that emit and are transferred on and down from objects, by diasporic subjects, to access the possible reclamation of otherwise silenced narratives within colonial and postcolonial histories. By following the events of the Partition of India in 1947 as a …

Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Stroke Outcomes: A Scoping Review Of Post-Stroke Disability Assessment Tools, Suzanne Perea Burns, Brandi M. White, Gayenell Magwood, Charles Ellis, Ayaba Logan, Joy N. Jones Buie, Robert J. Adams

Health and Clinical Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose: To identify how post-stroke disability outcomes are assessed in studies that examine racial/ethnic disparities and to map the identified assessment content to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) across the time course of stroke recovery.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review of the literature. Articles published between January 2001 and July 2017 were identified through Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results: We identified 1791 articles through database and hand-searching strategies. Of the articles, 194 met inclusion criteria for full-text review, and 41 met inclusion criteria for study inclusion. The …

Two Cultures, One Identity: Biculturalism Of Young Mexican Americans, Janela Aida Salazar

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

The purpose of this study was to explore the daily life of the younger generation of Mexican Americans through a phenomenology design. Specifically, in regard to how the culture-sharing pattern of biculturalism is reflected in their lives and the way they construct their bicultural identity. The study utilized rich qualitative data to paint a clear and descriptive picture of the internal process of biculturalism within eight Mexican American college students. Ultimately, the data analysis aimed to collect and reflect their voices and the stories. This was done through three distinct data methods that complemented each other: interviews (oral), photo elicitation …

Speaking Their Truth: Black Women's Perspectives On Executive-Level Administration In Higher Education, Tanja N. Bibbs

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

While Black women have etched a place for themselves as leaders within colleges and universities, few have advanced to the most senior levels of postsecondary administration and they remain underrepresented in those type of roles (Gamble & Turner, 2015; Jackson & Harris, 2007; West, 2015). Scholarly research has explored Black women’s experiences as institutional leaders (Davis & Maldonado, 2015; Smith & Crawford, 2007; Waring, 2003); yet the phenomenon of executive-level higher education administration, specifically as it relates to Black women’s perspectives, is not well known (Enke, 2014; Jean-Marie, Williams, & Sherman, 2009). Moreover, research that directs attention to Black women’s …

Women Into Advanced Manufacturing: Can Community College Open This Door?, Carissa Bradley Schutzman

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Women still rarely choose to seek employment in advanced manufacturing. Lack of familiarity with manufacturing jobs and education programs, lack of role models, and too few experiential opportunities contribute to women not choosing manufacturing jobs as well as other jobs traditionally held by men (Reha, Lufkin, & Harrison, 2009; St. Rose & Hill, 2013; Starobin & Laanan, 2008). Nontraditional jobs for women often provide higher wages and more opportunity for advancement than traditional jobs for women. This study is a qualitative thematic narrative analysis of factors that influenced women who chose an advanced manufacturing program at a community college to …

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

Social Identity Theory And Public Opinion Towards Immigration, Maurice Mangum, Ray Block Jr.

Political Science Faculty Publications

Several scholars have called upon social identity theory to investigate the relationship between an American national identity and American public opinion on immigration. Lacking a uniform measure of American identity, by and large, scholars find that a two-dimensional conception of American identity influences these opinions. Our review suggests that the extant measures of American identity do not fully account for the various aspects of social identity theory. We capture more fully the different components of social identity theory. By doing so, we find that American identity has five dimensions. Therefore, in this analysis, we advance a more comprehensive measure of …

An Examination Of Relations Among Fear, Guilt, Self-Compassion, And Multicultural Attitudes In White Adults, Whitney W. Black

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Structural racism is often perpetuated by well-intentioned White individuals who passively accept or are unaware of its existence. However, when their perceptions and understanding of the world are challenged through learning about structural racism, White people may experience emotions such as fear, and guilt, which seem to serve either a debilitating or a motivating role in multicultural attitude development. Self-compassion, which is the ability to process distressing emotions without resorting to avoidance of the emotional experience, may help White individuals work through strong negative affect that accompanies an awareness of structural racism and ultimately aid in the development of multicultural …

“We’Re Being Left To Blight”: Green Urban Development And Racialized Space In Kansas City, Chhaya Kolavalli

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

In this dissertation, I explore ‘green’ urban development and urban agriculture projects from the perspective of residents of an African American majority neighborhood in Kansas City—who reside in an area referred to as a ‘blighted food desert’ by local policy makers. In Kansas City, extensive city government support exists for urban agricultural projects, which are touted not just as a solution to poverty associated issues such food insecurity and obesity, but also as a remedy for ‘blight,’ violence and crime, and vacant urban land. Specific narratives of Kansas City’s past are used to prop up and legitimate these future visions …

“The Best Thing That’S Happened In My Life”: The Journey Toward Acceptance Of One’S Lgbtq Child In A Sample Of Cuban-Americans And Puerto Ricans, Roberto Luis Abreu

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Acceptance by a parental figure is one of the most important protective factors for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) youth and young adults (e.g., Ryan, 2009, 2010). Lack of parental acceptance may lead to a disruption in parent-child relationships and may increase risk for maladaptive behaviors and poorer psychosocial outcomes in LGBTQ youth (e.g., Bouris et al., 2010). Researchers have called for more inclusive samples and methods to better understand the experiences of families from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds (e.g., Heatherington & Lavner 2008). Specific to Latinas/os, cultural factors and theoretically informed interventions that facilitate parental acceptance …

Increasing Inclusion: The Pursuit Of Racial Diversity In Three Historically White Universities In Kentucky, Michigan, And Ontario From 2000 To 2012, David J. Luke

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

The University of Kentucky (UK) and University of Michigan (UM) present very different patterns in terms of black student enrollments and completions from 2000 to 2012 because of a structural explanation, a qualitative explanation, and a statistical explanation. Unfortunately, the patterns at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) are partial due to a lack of data.

First, the structural explanation is that UK, as a university in the state of Kentucky, was under a mandate from the U.S. Department of Education to desegregate because they were in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The Kentucky Council on …

Pathway Of Protection: Ethnic Identity, Self-Esteem, And Substance Use Among Multiracial Youth, Sycarah Fisher, Tamika C. B. Zapolski, Chelsea Sheehan, Jessica Barnes-Najor

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Fifty percent of adolescents have tried an illicit drug and 70% have tried alcohol by the end of high school, with even higher rates among multiracial youth. Ethnic identity is a protective factor against substance use for minority groups. However, little is known about the mechanisms that facilitate its protective effects, and even less is known about this relationship for multiracial youth. The purpose of the present study was to examine the protective effect of ethnic identity on substance use and to determine whether this relationship operated indirectly through self-esteem, a strong predictor of substance use for among adolescent populations. …

Availability Of Healthcare Resources And Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Stage Of Diagnosis And Mortality Among Blacks And Whites, Swati Sakhuja, Huifeng Yun, Maria Pisu, Tomi Akinyemiju

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: The purpose of this study is to examine whether racial disparities in epithelial ovarian cancer stage at diagnosis and survival may be explained by geographic availability of healthcare resources among Blacks and Whites.

Methods: Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was used to identify White and Black women ages 40 years and above diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer between 2000 and 2010. Data on county-level availability of healthcare resources was obtained from the Area Resource File. Multi-level regression models, overall and stratified by race and age, were used to examine the associations of health care …

Examining The Protective Effect Of Ethnic Identity On Drug Attitudes And Use Among A Diverse Youth Population, Tamika C. B. Zapolski, Sycarah Fisher, Devin E. Banks, Devon J. Hensel, Jessica Barnes-Najor

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Ethnic identity is an important buffer against drug use among minority youth. However, limited work has examined pathways through which ethnic identity mitigates risk. School-aged youth (N = 34,708; 52 % female) of diverse backgrounds (i.e., African American (n = 5333), Asian (n = 392), Hispanic (n = 662), Multiracial (n = 2129), Native American (n = 474), and White (n = 25718) in grades 4–12 provided data on ethnic identity, drug attitudes, and drug use. After controlling for gender and grade, higher ethnic identity was associated with lower past month drug use …

A Case For Empathy: Immigration In Spanish Contemporary Media, Music, Film, And Novels, Constantin C. Icleanu

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This dissertation analyzes the representations of immigrants from North Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe in Spain. As engaged scholarship, it seeks to better the portrayal of immigrants in the mass media through the study of literature, film, and music about immigration spanning from the year 2000 to 2016. Because misconceptions continue to propagate in the media, this dissertation works to counteract anti-immigrant, xenophobic representations as well as balance out overly positive and orientalized portrayal of immigrants with a call to recognize immigrants as human beings who deserve the same respect, dignity, and rights as any other citizen.

Chapter 1 …

The Reflection And Reification Of Racialized Language In Popular Media, Kelly E. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This work highlights specific lexical items that have become racialized in specific contextual applications and tests how these words are cognitively processed. This work presents the results of a visual world (Huettig et al 2011) eye-tracking study designed to determine the perception and application of racialized (Coates 2011) adjectives. To objectively select the racialized adjectives used, I developed a corpus comprised of popular media sources, designed specifically to suit my research question. I collected publications from digital media sources such as Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Fortune by scraping articles featuring specific search terms from their websites. This experiment seeks …

Intergenerational Education Mobility Trends By Race And Gender In The United States, Joseph J. Ferrare

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

Researchers have examined racial and gender patterns of intergenerational education mobility, but less attention has been given to the ways that race and gender interact to further shape these relationships. Based on data from the General Social Survey, this study examined the trajectories of education mobility among Blacks and Whites by gender over the past century. Ordinary least squares and logistic regression models revealed three noteworthy patterns. First, Black men and women have closed substantial gaps with their White counterparts in intergenerational education mobility. At relatively low levels of parental education, these gains have been experienced equally among Black men …

Transnational Ties Within Azorean Multigenerational Kinship Groups: Multi-Connectedness And Icts, Ana Gherghel, Josiane Le Gall

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

This article analyzes the influence of ICTs use on transnational connections and on their perpetuation over time within multigenerational kinship groups dispersed in several countries. Evidence from a multi-sited ethnographic research dedicated to migration from the Azores archipelago (Portugal) to the province of Quebec (Canada) provides information about factors explaining transnational practice over several decades. Our data indicate an overall intensification of transnational contacts due to increasing accessibility of new technologies. However, this process takes place in a family environment characterized by multi-connectedness, a capacity to maintain multiple active ties with siblings living in various countries and using multiple modalities. …