Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph Robert Burns

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

The Mirror Project: Reflections On The Experiences Of African-American Female Adolescents Experiencing Foster Care, Bahia Anise-Cross Degruy Overton

Dissertations and Theses

As the author Zora Neale Hurston says, "If you're silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it." The Mirror Project (MP) aims to break this silence by giving voice to Black women who have experienced foster care in Portland, Oregon during their adolescence. In focus groups and interviews, participants shared their stories. Racial identity development theory, phenomenology and Afrocentric feminist epistemology provided lenses for gaining insight into their experiences in a predominantly white city. The MP revealed six themes: lack of youth engagement in foster care decisions, the need for a cultural lens in social work, …

Gen Z And Millennials Have An Unlikely Love Affair With Their Local Libraries, Kathi Inman Berens, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former. In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour. Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022. Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the Pew Research Center, which showed …

Digital Public Library Ecosystem 2023, Rachel Noorda, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Digital Public Library Ecosystem is the network of digital book collection and circulation specifically through public libraries. Digital book collection and circulation have never been more important than they are today. Nearly 1 in 3 Americans has read an ebook in the last 12 months. Audiobook listening is also high; nearly 1 in 4 Americans has listened to an audiobook in that same time period. Libraries are one way in which readers gain access to ebooks and audiobooks. Despite this, a holistic view of the digital library ecosystem is largely opaque. Three factors contribute to current confusion about the …

An Overview Of Elements And Relations: Aspects Of A Scientific Metaphysics, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A talk on my book, Elements and Relations: Aspects of a Scientific Metaphysics. Book description:

This book develops the core proposition that systems theory is an attempt to construct an “exact and scientific metaphysics,” a system of general ideas central to science that can be expressed mathematically. Collectively, these ideas would constitute a non-reductionist “theory of everything” unlike what is being sought in physics. Inherently transdisciplinary, systems theory offers ideas and methods that are relevant to all of the sciences and also to professional fields such as systems engineering, public policy, business, and social work. To demonstrate the generality …

The Basic Dualism In The World, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Graham Harman writes that the “basic dualism in the world lies…between things in their intimate reality and things as confronted by other things.” This paper supports Harman’s assertion from a systems theoretic perspective and illustrates it with some examples, including conceptions about truth, ethics, value, and intelligence. But dualism implies irreconcilable difference; what Harman points to is better expressed as a dyad, where the two components not only imply one another but are related, and where this spatial dyad is usefully augmented with a temporal dimension, expressed in a third component or an additional orthogonal dyad.

Gen Z And Millennials How They Use Public Libraries And Identify Through Media Use, Kathi Inman Berens, Rachel Noorda

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

Gen Z and millennials have some surprising attitudes and behaviors regarding media consumption and library use. 54% of Gen Z and millennials visited a physical library within a twelve-month period. Libraries attract even Gen Z and millennials who don’t identify as readers. This report examines Gen Z and millennials' book-related behaviors (such as borrowing, buying, downloading and socializing) and and how media use shapes Gen Z and millennials' identity claims as Readers, Gamers, Fans and Writers. The report is intended for specialists such as librarians and book publishers, and broad public audiences.

Critical Analysis Of Anti-Asian Hate In The News, Benardo Douglas Relampagos

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2019, the United States has had an increase in violence against Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities along with an increase of mainstream anti-Asian racist rhetoric. Between 2021 and 2022, The Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism reported an overall 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes (Report to the Nation, 2021). While racism against black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities has been the topic of an ever-growing body of critical discourse, prior to 2019 few publications had addressed racism and injustice regarding language choices and discourse in the context of anti-Asian rhetoric in the US, specifically …

Love Letters For Liberatory Futures, Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins, Roberta Hunte, Lakindra Mitchell Dove, Antonia R.G. Alvarez, Alma M. O. Trinidad, Gita Mehrotra

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This collection of letters serves to explore the narratives of a collective of women of color in academia by examining individual, collective, spiritual, and institutional strategies for surviving and transforming our institutional spaces and the ways that White Supremacy has shaped our journeys. Multiple perspectives are viewed, and we have written to our children, our future social work students, our future selves, our BIPOC faculty siblings, and our feared enemies to envision and embody more liberatory futures.

Keywords: liberation, academia, BIPOC faculty, institutional racism, White Supremacy

Adults’ Reading Engagement And Wellbeing In Aotearoa New Zealand, Stephen Reder

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Education and literacy have long been associated with a range of economic and social outcomes in industrialized societies. Recent research based on large-scale national and international surveys has examined effects of education and literacy on individuals’ social and economic outcomes. This paper takes a further step in understanding the importance of literacy for individuals’ economic and social outcomes by disentangling the effects of two different aspects of literacy, literacy proficiency as measured by standardized tests and reading engagement as measured by self-reports of everyday reading activities. Using recent nationally representative survey data from New Zealand, multivariate regression models estimate the …

Effects Of Language Status, Community Advice, And Parent Beliefs On Heritage Language Maintenance In The U.S.: A Scoping Review, Jasmine Loeung

University Honors Theses

This scoping review examines the effects of language status, community advice to parents, and parents' beliefs on heritage language maintenance within a U.S. context. A total of 34 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four key themes were identified as follows: (1) status of a language in society affects maintenance, (2) parents' beliefs about the impact of the heritage language affect family language practices, (3) community advice impacts parents' beliefs and practices, (4) other factors affecting maintenance of the heritage language across generations. Overall, HL maintenance was observed as a dynamic relationship between a variety of factors, with individuals as well …

Language Was My Home: I Had It In My Mind - But Not On My Tongue (Grappling With Aphasia), Corinne Othenin-Girard

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

Language was my home. I had a prolonged aphasic speech and writing block. Felt as if I was in exile. I slowly fought my way back amongst the ‘language owners’. Because of my funny stroke-induced accent, people tend to treat me like a foreigner. I began to write lyrics and prose to improve my language ability and also to show ‘them’, as well as myself, that I can do it. And that I can say again: language is my home.

An Industry-Standard Profit And Loss Statement For Book Publishing Professionals In The United States, Jackie Krantz

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Title profit and loss statements (P&Ls) in book publishing are valuable predictive tools for newly acquired titles. They inform the press on how money will be moving through the press in relation to the book’s production, revealing the book’s estimated value and level of profit. However, there is no industry-standard template. This lack of a template makes it difficult for new industry professionals to learn about P&Ls; prevents knowledge of one press’s P&L from being transferrable throughout the industry; and causes smaller presses to potentially neglect this useful tool due to the steep learning curve. The solution is to create …

Conducting Oral History: Background And Methods, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter-length essay describes the practice of oral history through real world examples: the steps to conducting oral history interviews, things to consider when developing a project or an interview plan, and ethical considerations. How oral history has enlarged the historical record and changed scholarly interpretation of the past are highlighted.

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Postpartum And The Pressure To Work, Summer Brother

Anthós

In the United States, the lack of availability and support around maternity leave results in mothers rushing back to the workforce soon after childbirth. Topics such as breastfeeding, physical trauma, postpartum depression, and working while in the postpartum period, all pile together to paint a picture of what it means to be a new mother in America. Through the use of qualitative data and academic sources, the article's findings conclude that health and bonding between the mother and baby are interconnected. The rush to begin work again also affects all aspects of one's health, often beyond the six to eight …

On Occupying: Women's Representation In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Emma Hillstead

University Honors Theses

Scholars of peace and conflict studies have begun to investigate the impact the inclusion of women has on the success of peace talks that seek to resolve violent conflict. Many of these scholars have found that when women are included at the negotiating table, the likelihood for the conflict to come to a peaceful conclusion increases. With the historical, religious, and cultural nuances, this paper seeks to apply the existing research on this subject to that of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This paper first analyzes the positionality of women within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically looking at access to power, then applies …

Trans Futures In The Present Moment, Willow Grace Eckmayer

University Honors Theses

The current climate for trans folks in the U.S. remains increasingly hostile and many researchers have called attention to the "joy deficit" within the existing trans literature (Shuster & Westbrook, 2022). This study investigates what trans individuals are currently doing to survive, thrive, and resist in a belligerent socio-political climate. To answer this, five community conversations with 25 participants were held using a semi-structured conversation guide. Within the analysis, the central theme that emerged was that trans individuals are using their communities to create radical futures. Our communities are supporting us through mutual aid and radical acts of care, which …

Son Otros Tiempos: Generational Experiences Of Male Friendships Amongst Mexican And Mexican American Men, Marisela Rodríguez Molina

Dissertations and Theses

Culturally specific work with Latinx men has also discussed the way Latinx masculinities are being redefined by younger generations. Grounded in Chicana Feminist epistemologies, I use Gloria Anzaldua's borderlands framework to analyze data from 20 interviews with sons and their father figures in understanding experience of masculinities within the context of male friendships. Differences between father's and son's experiences can be attributed to social context in which men are socialized and their borderlands experiences. Findings illustrate how understandings of masculinities represent a melding of cultural values between the dominant individualistic perspective in the U.S. and the collectivist perspective from men's …

An Analysis On The Florida Project, Capucine Rosier

University Honors Theses

The Florida Project is a contemporary movie filmed by independent director Sean Baker. This movie tackles different social and institutional issues across America, specifically the outdated welfare system and the rise of homelessness among young children. This paper is determined to analyze the different social and ethical concerns filmed throughout the movie and offer my interpretation of the film. Digging deeper into artistic pieces is essential as hidden messages are portrayed in every way. Censorship and display through art have been a form of individual expression since the beginning. This thesis will discuss how the filmmaker filmed and showcased the …

Recovery Of Voice, Agency, And Mental Health Through Autobiography In Nadia, Captive Of Hope, Dania A. Ayach

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the process of how one Arab woman reclaimed her agency, autonomy, and ability to move through trauma to self-construction, self-narration, and self-healing via the medium of autobiography in Nadia, Captive of Hope: Memoir of an Arab Woman.

Colonialism's Creation Of Machismo And Its Influence On Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault: A Film Analysis Of Telenovela Dv/Sa Anthologies, Yoselin Aguirre Perez

University Honors Theses

Using Lothar Mikos' (2014) content analysis framework, this thesis uses a Xicana feminist epistemology to conduct a film analysis on telenovela anthologies Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real (1986-2007) and Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres (2001-today). The impact that harmful depictions of domestic violence and sexual assault, and their foundations in colonialism, is discussed throughout my writing. The cynical and racist implications that problematic portrayals of domestic violence and sexual assault within the Latinx community is analyzed. This thesis claims that popular media, while attempting to bring awareness to these sensitive and life-threatening issues, have perpetuated a culture of recrimination …

Shame And Silencing Of Amejo In Okinawa: Examining Gendered And Militarized Violence, Katie Hashimoto

University Honors Theses

Off the southern part of Japan is the small archipelago of Okinawa. Of Japan's total land mass, Okinawa makes up only 0.6% of the country, yet it hosts over 70% of the land occupied by U.S. military bases. Since the end of World War II, Okinawa has existed under dual-subjugation by Japan and the U.S., which has created the grounds for systemic gendered and militarized violence. Rape and sexual violence perpetrated by U.S. military servicemen continue to be the primary concern of Okinawan feminists pushing for the demilitarization of Okinawa. However, these concerns often get lost within heteronormative and male-masculinist …

Lights, Camera, Climate Action: Investigating Emotional Responses To Climate Change Trailers (Documentary, Television, & Narrative Film), Erik Daniel Schell Devore

University Honors Theses

This research examined the emotional responses elicited by different genres of environmental visual media (VM) trailers. Six undergraduate Environmental Science and Management student participants self-selected to watch trailers from three different genres of VM: a documentary film, a television series, and a narrative film. The goal of this research was to understand the extent people become aware of various environmental VM topics, how VM elicits emotional responses, the effectiveness of VM in promoting action, and to gain a better understanding of how producers and directors can potentially modify VM to have a greater impact on changing participants' attitudes toward climate …

Stop Not Writing Songs: Using Time And Collaboration To Overcome Self-Doubt, Imposter Syndrome, And Writer's Block, Carley Baer

University Honors Theses

The inner critic is a common foe within creative disciplines, and with it comes a host of internal obstacles such as anxiety, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, writer’s block, and more, that cause stress and conspire to keep artists from realizing their full creative potential. In this paper, I utilize research methods as well as self-reflection to consider how songwriters can implement the external constraints of time and collaboration to get around internal obstacles and introduce more freedom into the creative process. I examine the strategies of quantity over quality, maintaining an improv mindset, and amending expectations to explain how the inner …

Women Parliamentarians In India Since 1991: Challenges And Opportunities, Vatsala Bhusry

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

India gained a new economic orientation in 1991 following the policy of economic liberalization. It offered the opportunities to close the gender gap in various fields including the political field as visualized in the original goal of the Indian constitution. However, there is an acute underrepresentation of women at the national political level and there is a lack of evidence-based research studies to analyze this gap. This study maps the political trajectories of 13 elected women leaders holding offices at the national level since 2019. To better understand the challenges and opportunities at both macro and micro levels they came …

Menstruation Products And Perceptions: Breaking Through The Crimson Ceiling, Ava Colleran

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines different views on menstruation throughout history and their effects on social, political, and economic landscapes. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mayans all believed in the supposed ‘magical powers’ of menstrual blood. These societies held their own ideas on the limits of these magical abilities, and the good and evil forces they could be used for. Throughout these ancient societies, menstruation was used as a justification for the increased control of the state and men over women’s bodies. If menstrual blood did have these magical powers, it was a power that needed to be limited and controlled so …

The Satisfaction Clause In Publishing Agreements: A Case Study Of Its Purpose, Controversy, And Future, Maliea Ruby

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This research paper examines the satisfaction clause included in publishing contracts, the reason for controversy surrounding it, and what the future may look like for it. This is accomplished by looking at the history of the clause, how it functions in publishing contracts, and three major court cases centered around it. The satisfaction clause allows a client seeking a job done to determine whether the work is satisfactory to them. Much of the time these contracts are written to favor the client, part of the reason for its controversial status. In the context of publishing, the satisfaction clause is important …

Reactions To Latinx Children’S Picture Books From Indie Presses: An Analysis Of Online Consumer Reviews, Karina L. Agbisit

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This study analyzed online consumer reviews of children's picture books published by three small, independent presses focused on providing representation of Latinx people and culture. Reviews showed an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the use of bilingual text. Reactions to the use of illustrations support research indicating a preference for bright, colorful images. Additional themes that emerged in reviews include the timeliness of a bilingual book about expressing feelings in the first year of the Covid pandemic; the importance of personal connections to expressions of culture and traditions in the text; the pros and cons of using photographs instead of illustrations; …

Examining The Discovery Behaviors Of Comics Consumers, Tara Mccarron

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The comics consumer base is big and it’s only getting bigger. And yet, very little research has been done on the consumer behavior of comics reads. In order to broaden the accessibility to comics consumer research, this paper examined the discovery behavior of 56 survey participants. The survey included questions pertaining to demographics, frequency of comics consumed, genres of comics consumed, formats used to consume comics, and methods used to discover comics. Due to limited scope, this paper focused solely on format preferences, discovery preferences, and the most-popular genre preferences. Based on this research, graphic novels remained the preferred format …