Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

You Don't Know Jack: The Dynamics Of Mormon Religious/Ethnic Identity, Michael R. Cope

Theses and Dissertations

For much of human existence identity was ascribed based on the group one was born into. In such cultures all aspects of social life were fused into one incontrovertible identity: group identity. However as modern mindsets took root individuals began to shift the foundation of meaning and identity away from the fixed focal point of the group to one of personal preference. In response to this modern trend many groups began to intensify the maintenance of group identity as paramount in the lives of group members. Hammond and Warner (1993) assert that a powerful mechanism for sustaining group identity is …

Creating And Responding To The Gen(D)Eralized Other: Women Miners’ Community-Constructed Identities, Kristen Lucas, Sarah J. Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process that draws upon broader community discourses. Male miners and non-mining women created a generalized other for women as "unfit to mine" (i.e., women are physically too weak to mine, are easy prey, and are ladies who do not belong in the mines). Female miners responded with gendered discourses that distanced themselves from and linked themselves to the generalized other.

Survival Feminists: Identifying War’S Impact On The Roles Of Vietnamese Refugee Women, W. Cory Albertson

Sociology Theses

Although the Vietnam War has long passed, it still defines the lives of many Vietnamese refugee women who endured its aftermath. This thesis examines how war and the refugee process has shaped the memories and changed the roles of Vietnamese refugee women age 55 and older. Based on 10 life history interviews with Vietnamese women living in Atlanta, this study finds they structured their narratives by awarding the period after the Vietnam War with the most prominence. Also, the research shows the greatest amount of role change and role strain occurred during this time. With the absence of their husbands …

Intersexed, Intertext: A Critique Of Limited Gender Identity In Herculine Barbin And Middlesex, Allison Andrew

All Theses

Relying on the work of poststructuralists Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Judith Halberstam for their findings on gender and sexuality, as well as the sociological study of intersexed individuals by Sharon Preves, this thesis will show the identity construction of the intersexed both before and after intervention by closely charting their plight as it is presented in Michel Foucault's Herculine Barbin (1980) and Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex (2003). These texts vary greatly in historical significance, genre, and audience, but nevertheless suggest the same argument regarding the construction of identity. Ultimately, it is the self whose definition is of the greatest importance. …

A Qualitative Inquiry Of Conceptualized Heterosexuality And Its Influence On The Counseling Process, Breyan N. Haizlip

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

With CACREP's increasing attention to majority cultural group memberships and its influence on trainee self-awareness and the counseling relationship (see CACREP 2001/2009), heterosexually-identified counselors have little or no opportunity to increase awareness of their own sexuality, creating challenges when working with clients of various sexual identities. The purpose of this article is to present a qualitative analysis of conceptualized heterosexuality and its influences on the counseling process. A model of the process by which heterosexually-identified counselors conceptualize their heterosexual identity and its influences the counseling process is proposed. Results suggest that providing counselor trainees an opportunity to explore the relationship …

Ethnic Identity And Sense Of School Belongingness: Behaviors And Beliefs Of Immigrant Hispanic Students And Parents, Francisco B. Ortiz

Master's Theses

For many decades, the number of minority students, particularly Hispanics, dropping out from school has been noticeable to say the least (Rumberger, 1995). These students have in the past and continue in the present to struggle with the educational system, and it is certain, but not clear, that various factors contribute to Hispanics’ poor academic performance and not being able to graduate from High School (Rumbaut & Cornelius, 1995). Some of these factors are organized in three groups: School-Related; Parental-Related; and Student-Related. Thus, this study is an attempt to understand how immigrant students and parents are currently responding to the …

Chang-Rae Lee's A Gesture Lite: The Recuperation Of Identity, Matthew Miller

Ethnic Studies Review

In Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life, the elderly, wellrespected and fastidious Franklin "Doc" Hata begins an introspective journey toward a revitalized and reimagined identity. For Lee, this journey affords the chance to address ethnicity and immigration under a unique transnational context. The novel chronicles how an identity can be recuperated (i.e., healed) through personal and cultural reconnections to the body and to memory. I purposefully use the word "recuperate" in both the traditional and theoretical senses. "Recuperation" results from Hata's moving back into his past to grow forward in self. Simultaneously, he "heals" his self, physically and psychologically, from various …

Sacred Hoop Dreams: Basketball In The Work Of Sherman Alexie, David S. Goldstein

Ethnic Studies Review

The game of basketball serves as a fitting metaphor for the conflicts and tensions of life. It involves both cooperation and competition, selflessness and ego. In the hands of a gifted writer like Sherman Alexie, those paradoxes become even deeper and more revealing. In his short story collections, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and The Toughest Indian in the World, his debut novel, Reservation Blues, and his recent young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Alexie uses basketball to explore the ironies of American Indian reservation life and the tensions between traditional lifeways …

Ethnoracial Land Restitution: Finding Indians And Fugitive Slave Descendants In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This chapter considers how a desire for land and development can lead to a refashioning of ethnoracial identities and identifications. Debates in development studies have centered on culture as an impediment to development. I turn that debate on its head and argue that new assertions of cultural particularity have in certain settings advanced the equity goals of development. The chapter explores the contrasting responses of two neighbouring communities of related African descended, mixed race rural workers who over a 25-year period (1975- 2000), under new laws, were recognized and given land by the Brazilian government. One was identified as an …

Selfhood In Younger Onset Dementia: Transitions And Testimonies., Phyllis Braudy Harris, John Keady

Sociology

Younger people with dementia and their carers are an overlooked population for research, policy and practice attention. In this study, data were collected from both the United States and the UK in order to explore the meaning and construction of selfhood and identity. The US data collection included in-depth interviews with 23 people diagnosed with younger-onset dementia, while the UK data collection comprised 15 face-to-face interviews with younger carers of younger people with dementia; all carers were/had been caring for a younger person with dementia diagnosed through the DSM-IV-R criteria. A grounded theory analysis of the data resulted in the …

The Bride Is Keeping Her Name: A 35-Year Retrospective Analysis Of Trends And Correlates, Richard J. Kopelman, Rita J. Shea Van-Fossen, Eletherios Paraskevas, Leanna Lawter, David J. Prottas

WCBT Faculty Publications

We used data obtained from wedding announcements in the New York Times newspaper from 1971 through 2005 (N=2,400) to test 9 hypotheses related to brides' decisions to change or retain their maiden names upon marriage. As predicted, a trend was found in brides keeping their surname, and correlates included the bride’s occupation, education, age, and the type of ceremony (religious versus nonsectarian). Partial support was found for the following correlates: officiants representing different religions, brides with one or both parents deceased, and brides whose parents had divorced or separated. There was mixed support for the hypothesis that a …

Crime And Precaution, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Precautionary logic and risk assessments can be associated with counter terrorism, criminal profiling, and the management of high risk individuals/ groups. Overall, risk precautionary logic and risk assessments can be framed using the Ban-opticon concept identified by Bigo, though panopitic elements do exist when discussing concepts of surveillance. The Ban opticon framework has 3 major concepts: (a) Criminal profiling, (b) the management of movement and (c) exceptionalism.

Both precautionary logic and risk assessments are associated with the profiling of harms and threats, the management of individual or group movement, and both are used to provide qualitative and quantitative rationale for …

A Call To Community: Some Thoughts For Student Affairs About Identity And Diversity, Jason A. Laker

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Contentment In My Heart": Evangelical Women And Spiritual Journeys, Elizabeth A. Doran

Honors Theses

This honors thesis is an in-depth, qualitative study of a central Maine evangelical church. My focus is on five women and their religious journeys and experiences as Christian women. I explore a number of issues: the appeal of this church community to contemporary women; the connections and the contrasts between what the church leaders espouse and what ordinary female members believe; the ways in which the women develop their own personal relationships with Christ, the evangelical tradition, and other members of the community; and my own journey as a student of sociology and a qualitative researcher.

Ethnicity, Race, And Nationalism, Rogers Brubaker

Rogers Brubaker

This article traces the contours of a comparative, global, crossdisciplinary, and multiparadigmatic field that construes ethnicity, race, and nationhood as a single integrated family of forms of cultural understanding, social organization, and political contestation. It then reviews a set of diverse yet related efforts to study the way ethnicity, race, and nation work in social, cultural, and political life without treating ethnic groups, races, or nations as substantial entities, or even taking such groups as units of analysis at all.

Pursuing The Good Life: American Narratives Of Travel And A Search For Refuge, Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.