Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Twelve Years Later: Afghan Humanitarian Aid Workers On War On Terror, Emmanuel C. Ogwude

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Using narrative research study founded in social constructionism, I explored the lived experiences of thirty Afghan humanitarian aid workers in Kabul, Afghanistan, to discover how they experienced the war on terror. Ten participants were individually interviewed and their stories, personal experiences, perceptions, and voices have been presented in this study. I also facilitated a focus group of twenty Afghan NGO directors, and their views are echoed in the study. The participants represented a diversity of different humanitarian service specialties that cater to Afghan individuals, communities, and government agencies in areas such as education, human rights and good governance, food and …

Perpetrator And Victim Constructions Of Justice, Forgiveness And Trauma Healing: Results Of A Thematic Narrative Study Of Intra-Group Conflict In Colonial Central Kenya, 1952-1962, Daniel Njoroge Karanja

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated how the Gikuyu people of central Kenya understood justice, forgiveness and trauma healing or their absence during a decade of intra-group reciprocal violence. This qualitative research study employed the narrative research method utilizing the "Williams Model" (Riessman, 2008). Field interviews were guided by a primary research question: What do the narratives of perpetrators and victims in reciprocal violence reveal about their understanding of justice, forgiveness and trauma healing or their absence? Fourteen research participants aged 78 to 92 years shared their full narratives. Current conflict analysis literature overwhelmingly centers on the victims and less on perpetrators. The …

Tweeting Away Our Blues: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach To Exploring Black Women's Use Of Social Media To Combat Misogynoir, Kelly Macias

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the age of social media, many Black women use online platforms and social networks as a means of connecting with other Black women and to share their experiences of social oppression and misogynoir, anti-Black misogyny. Examining the ways that Black women use technology as a tool to actively wage resistance to racial, gender and class oppression is critical for understanding their role in the human struggle for greater peace, beauty, freedom and justice. This study explored the experiences of 12 Black women in the United States and Britain who use social media for storytelling and testimony about their lives …

Between Warrior And Helplessness In The Valley Of Azawa - The Struggle Of The Kel Tamashek In The War Of The Sahel, Patrick James Christian

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an Investigation into the Tuareg involvement in violent conflict in the Sahara and the Sahel of North Africa from a sociological psychological perspective of unmet human needs. The research begins by establishing the structure and texture of the sociological, psychological, and emotional life patterns of their existence when not involved in violent conflict. This is followed by an examination of the pathology of Tuareg social structures that are engaged in intra and inter communal violence as perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. The first part of the research establishes normal conditions of the sociological life cycle and highlights natural …

Bloggers And Their Impact On Contemporary Social Movements: A Phenomenological Examination Of The Role Of Blogs And Their Creators In The Lgbt Social Movements In Modern United States, Bobby K. Huen

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The Internet is a ubiquitous feature in everyday life, but its application to social movements has yet to be completely understood. This phenomenological study examines the lived experiences of bloggers who focused on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement in the United States to understand the impact bloggers and their work as online activists have on existing LGBT social movement organization and operation. Data collection is gathered from semi-structured and open-ended interviews with four social movement bloggers using web-conference software over the course of three months. The results of this study indicated that internet has empowered individual activists, …

Nation-State Personality Theory: A Qualitative Comparative Historical Analysis Of Russian Behavior, During Social/Political Transition, Mark George Bound

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The study theorizes that a nation-state can manifest a condition similar to that of personality commonly associated with humans. Through the identification of consistent behaviors, a personality like condition is recognizable, and the underlining motivations dictate national policy independent of any current social/political influence. The research examines Russia during two historical periods examining the conflict events and social/political transitions of the period, to identify common behavioral characteristics, which indicate the existence of any independent personality like trait.

The study focuses on two historical periods: the Monarch Period of Peter I (The Great), and the Post-Soviet Union period of Vladimir Putin, …

Transition To Independence: A Phenomenological Study Of Foster Care Alumni Pursuing A College Degree, Erica W. Martin

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the experiences of foster care alumni pursuing a college degree and the perceptions and meanings they attribute to those experiences. This phenomenological study explored the conflicts that may impair foster care alumni from achieving postsecondary educational goals. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews with 10 foster care alumni in the Central Florida area. The findings were based on the following research question: What are the obstacles to postsecondary achievement for foster care alumni who are currently pursuing or would like to pursue a degree at a two-or-four-year university? Scholarly literature and four theoretical frameworks support the analysis of …

The Lived Experience Of Witnessing Bullying In The Workplace: A Transcendental Phenomenological Study, Angela E. Dash

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Bullying in the workplace is prevalent in the United States and its impact is harmful not only to targets, but to the organization and its members. Through exploring the experiences of employees who self- identify with having witnessed bullying in the workplace, this transcendental phenomenological study was guided by the following two-part research question: “What is the experience of witnessing bullying in the workplace and how do participants describe their organizations where workplace bullying was witnessed?” The carefully constructed wording of my research question indicates that I was not searching for causal relationships. Instead, I was open to whatever came …

Accommodation, Avoidance And Submission: How The Interpretation Of Biblical Submission As The Low-Self Conflict Modes Affects The Christian Marriage Relationship, Kipi L. Fleming

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The concept of submission is foundational to Christian teaching. Jesus modeled submission in his obedience to the Father even to his sacrifice on the cross, and both Paul and Peter included exhortations for Christians to submit to God, to governmental authorities, and to one another, but the most specific directive was to wives to submit to their husbands. Despite the centrality of the concept, the exact definition of biblical submission of wife to husband is a matter of interpretation, tradition, and personal opinion. This dissertation utilized a 58-question survey in an attempt to determine how a person’s definition of and …

Right Parietal Cortex Mediates Recognition Memory For Melodies, Nora K. Schaal, Amir-Homayoun Javadi, Andrea R. Halpern, Bettina Pollok, Michael J. Banissy

Faculty Journal Articles

Functional brain imaging studies have highlighted the significance of right-lateralized temporal, frontal and parietal brain areas for memory for melodies. The present study investigated the involvement of bilateral posterior parietal cortices (PPCs) for the recognition memory of melodies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants performed a recognition task before and after tDCS. The task included an encoding phase (12 melodies), a retention period, as well as a recognition phase (24 melodies). Experiment 1 revealed that anodal tDCS over the right PPC led to a deterioration of overall memory performance compared with sham. Experiment 2 confirmed the results of Experiment …

A Mechanism For Sensorimotor Translation In Singing: The Multi-Modal Imagery Association (Mmia) Model, Peter Q. Pfordresher, Andrea R. Halpern, Emma B. Greenspon

Faculty Journal Articles

WE PROPOSE A NEW FRAMEWORK TO UNDERSTAND singing accuracy, based on multi-modal imagery associations: the MMIA model. This model is based on recent data suggesting a link between auditory imagery and singing accuracy, evidence for a link between imagery and the functioning of internal models for sensorimotor associations, and the use of imagery in singing pedagogy. By this account, imagery involves automatic associations between different modalities, which in the present context comprise associations between pitch height and the regulation of vocal fold tension. Importantly, these associations are based on probabilistic relationships that may vary with respect to their precision and …

The Speed Of Our Mental Soundtracks: Tracking The Tempo Of Involuntary Musical Imagery In Everyday Life, Kelly Jakubowski, Nicolas Farrugia, Andrea R. Halpern, Sathish K. Sankarpandi, Lauren Stewart

Faculty Journal Articles

The study of spontaneous and everyday cognitions is an area of rapidly growing interest. One of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition is involuntary musical imagery (INMI), the involuntarily retrieved and repetitive mental replay of music. The present study introduced a novel method for capturing temporal features of INMI within a naturalistic setting. This method allowed for the investigation of two questions of interest to INMI researchers in a more objective way than previously possible, concerning (1) the precision of memory representations within INMI and (2) the interactions between INMI and concurrent affective state. Over the course of 4 …

Regional Affiliation: An Examination Of Rio Viejo Middens As Evidence For Scaled-Up Practice At Surrounding Sites., Carlo Lucido

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project analyzes 5 middens from the Lower Rio Verde valley sites of Río Viejo and Yugüe, Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Terminal Formative period (150 BC to AD 250). The middens are analyzed to further our understanding of socio-political events in public spaces at both sites during this time. The study suggests a greater distinction in use of public spaces between the two sites than within Río Viejo. Frameworks established by Dietler and Hayden for the analysis of feasts do not seem to apply well to the middens analyzed here. Although I argue that evidence from Rio Viejo's middens …

A Case Study Of The Conflicts Women Experience With Tourism And Immigration In Vilcabamba, Ecuador: A Sustainable Livelihoods Perspective, Fatima A. Cotton

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This research is situated in the community of Vilcabamba in the province of Loja, Ecuador. Vilcabamba is a small village in the southern Andes of Ecuador, approximately 28 miles (45km) from Loja city. Many people were drawn to the area because of stories they heard about people there living to be over 100 years old. Books and articles have been written in attempts to establish the veracity of these claims and to explore why the people of Vilcabamba are living so long. This dissertation is a qualitative case study that explores how the recent surge of tourism and immigration in …

A Gift Of Nature And The Source Of Violent Conflict: Land And Boundary Disputes In The North West Region Of Cameroon The Case Of Balikumbat And Bafanji, Moise Oneke Arrah

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Balikumbat and Bafanji are the names of two villages in the Northwest Region of Cameroon that have been warring against one another over Bangang, a tract of fertile land. The conflict hinges on perceived differences about who should have access to this fertile land. Both villages claim ownership. This conflict has persisted from colonial times to the present with no tangible resolution. Understanding the place of land within the political, social, and economic fabric of the lives of both villages prior to and after the arrival of the colonial administration is the centerpiece of this research endeavor. This study sheds …

Absolute Pitch In Naturalistic Singing: A Commentary On Olthof Et Al., Andrea R. Halpern

Faculty Journal Articles

The parent article looks at pitch stability in an archive of folksongs recorded over several decades. Some evidence for pitch stability was found. Here, I consider some additional aspects of the archive that could be examined, offer some extensions to relevant laboratory studies, and consider some inherent strengths and limitations of the naturalistic, archival approach.

Differences In Auditory Imagery Self-Report Predict Neural And Behavioral Outcomes, Andrea R. Halpern

Faculty Journal Articles

Mental imagery abilities vary among individuals, as shown both by objective measures and by self-report. Few imagery studies consider auditory imagery, however. The Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale is a short self-report measure encompassing both Vividness and Control subscales for musical, verbal, and environmental sounds. It has high internal reliability, no relation to social desirability, and only a modest relation to musical training. High scores on Vividness predict fewer source memory errors in distinguishing heard from imagined tunes on a recognition test, and better performance on pitch imitation tasks. Furthermore, higher scores are related to hemodynamic response and gray matter volume …

How To Flirt Best: The Perceived Effectiveness Of Flirtation Techniques, T. Joel Wade

Faculty Journal Articles

Four studies were implemented in order to ascertain how men and women flirt with potential partners and which flirtatious actions are considered most effective. Study 1 (n = 40) and Study 2 (n = 60) sought to discover the actions that men and women, respectively, engage in to indicate romantic interest to a partner. Study 3 (n = 110) sought to determine which flirtatious acts from women are perceived as most effective by men. Women’s flirtations that suggest sexual access were expected to be rated as most effective. Study 4 (n = 222) sought to determine which flirtatious acts from …

"Dark And Wicked Things": Slender Man, The Folkloresque, And The Implications Of Belief, Jeffrey A. Tolbert

Faculty Journal Articles

In this paper I examine the media discourses surrounding the May 2014 stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin by two of her friends, supposedly to please the online legendary monster Slender Man, and several subsequent events which media outlets also attempted to link to the horror meme. I consider the implications of folkloric believability, by which I mean the interplay of belief about a tradition’s status as folklore, which in turn has important implications for the believability of the tradition’s content. I argue that an understanding of the processes through which individuals interact with and shape emergent traditions …

Twenty Years Of Virginia Organizing: A Historical Analysis, Ruth Berta

Graduate Research Posters

Virginia Organizing is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide grassroots community organization aimed at empowering people to affect change in their communities. They celebrated their 20^th anniversary in 2015 and this process evaluation identifies the unique role that the Virginia Organizing State Governing Board has had in governing the organization. It determined the historical themes from this governing body’s 20 years of meeting minutes and assessed its membership diversity over time. In attempting to answer these questions: What themes emerge from the first 20 years of Virginia Organizing State Governing Board meeting minutes? How has the diversity of the membership of …

Successful Approaches To Ending Female Genital Cutting, Kay Young Mcchesney

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Female genital cutting (FGC) is practiced in 28 African countries; infibulation is practiced in nine African countries. Six unsuccessful approaches to ending FGC are reviewed: cultural absolutism, cultural relativism, health education, feminism, human rights legislation, and psychosocial approaches. Two successful programs that have resulted in communities abandoning FGC, including Tostan in Senegal, are described. Successful programs are community-led, aim to change social norms in the whole community, and empower women. Governments and NGOs should use community-led programs based on participatory methods as recommended interventions in order to promote community-wide abandonment of FGC.

Review Of Social Protection, Economic Growth And Social Change: Goals, Issues And Trajectories In China, India, Brazil And South Africa. James Midgley And David Piachaud (Eds.). Reviewed By Tanusha Raniga., Tanusha Raniga

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James Midgley & David Piachaud (Eds.), Social Protection, Economic Growth and Social Change: Goals, Issues and Trajectories in China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., (2013), 296 pages, $120.60 (hardback).

Review Of Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, And The State. Lauren Heidbrink. Reviewed By Laurie Melrood, Laurie Melrood

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Lauren Heidbrink, Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State. University of Pennsylvania Press (2014), 208 pages $49.95, cloth.

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 2 (June 2015)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: NEW SCHOLARSHIP IN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY Paul C. Luken and Suzanne Vaughan

CAPTURED BY CARE: AN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY ON THE WORK OF BEING IN A REHABILITATION PROCESS IN NORWAY Janne Paulsen Breimo

A SERVICE DISPARITY FOR RURAL YOUTH: THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL SERVICES ACROSS THE URBAN YOUTH CENTRE AND ITS RURAL BRANCH Jessica Braimoh

CATEGORIES OF EXCLUSION: THE TRANSFORMATION OF FORMERLY INCARCERATED WOMEN INTO "ABLE-BODIED ADULTS WITHOUT DEPENDENTS" IN WELFARE PROCESSING Megan Welsh

INTERROGATING THE RULING RELATIONS OF THAILAND'S POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION: EMPIRICALLY TRACKING SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE ABSENCE OF CONVENTIONAL TEXTS Aaron Williams …

Captured By Care: An Institutional Ethnography On The Work Of Being In A Rehabilitation Process In Norway, Janne I. Paulsen Breimo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Norwegian rehabilitation policies and new public management reforms share some features and are divided by others. The features that divide them are so contradictory that they create difficulties for people who are in a process of rehabilitation. Having studied the everyday life of people being in a process of rehabilitation, I argue that the continuous change in organizational structures in general makes the processes hard to endure for service users, specifically the reforms characterized by neoliberalism, because they, to a large extent, contradict the holistic rehabilitation ideology. This further illuminates the paradox that the greater and more complicated the …

Categories Of Exclusion: The Transformation Of Formerly Incarcerated Women Into “Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents” In Welfare Processing, Megan Welsh

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

For people who have just been released from incarceration, the work of getting out and resuming life on the outside often includes numerous institutional contacts. Applying for and maintaining public assistance—cash aid and food stamps, commonly referred to as welfare— is a central component of what I call “reentry work.” I argue that discourses around welfare and punishment have perpetuated the erasure of formerly incarcerated women’s experiences. Utilizing an institutional ethnographic perspective, I show how the work of applying for and maintaining welfare is organized around a standardized textual discourse of children, and women as caretakers of children. Formerly incarcerated …

Review Of The Black Power Movement And American Social Work. Joyce Bell. Reviewed By Wilma Peebles-Wilkins., Wilma Peebles-Wilkins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Joyce Bell, The Black Power Movement and American Social Work. (2014). Columbia University Press. $50.00 (hardcover), 256 pages.

Review Of Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching And Unemployment Experiences. Ofer Sharone. Reviewed By Randall P. Wilson, Randall Wilson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Ofer Sharone, Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching and Unemployment Experiences. (2013). University of Chicago Press. $85 (hardcover), $27.50 (paperback), 240 pages.

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 3 (September 2015)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

AN EXAMINATION OF THE NEW YORK STATE WORKERS' COMPENSATION REFORM ACT OF 2007 Julia Ostrov

REFRAMING NEW FRONTIERS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Hilary Weaver

SOCIAL WORK ADVOCACY: PROFESSIONAL SELF-INTEREST AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Mary Ellen Brown, Michelle Livermore, and Annahita Ball

WHO'S LEFT OUT: CHARACTERISTICS OF HOUSEHOLDS IN ECONOMIC NEED NOT RECEIVING PUBLIC SUPPORT Vincent A. Fusaro

APPLYING SEN'S CAPABILITY APPROACH TO UNDERSTAND WORK AND INCOME AMONG POOR PEOPLE IN INDIA Mahasweta M. Banerjee

RELATIONSHIP-BASED JUSTICE FOR GENDER RESPONSIVE SPECIALTY COURTS Margaret H. Lloyd

RACE-GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE IMPACT OF HISTORY OF HEAVY DRINKING ON CURRENT ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION DURING THE TRANSITION TO …

Who's Left Out: Characteristics Of Households In Economic Need Not Receiving Public Support, Vincent A. Fusaro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American welfare state is often referred to as a social safety net, yet many in economic need do not receive public benefits. This article examines the characteristics of low-income households in the United States that do not participate in any of several public cash or near-cash support programs. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2008 panel—a representative sample of U.S. households—households below the federal poverty threshold but not participating in any of eleven different income support programs were identified. Over a third (38.02%) of households in poverty did not receive any assistance from the examined programs. …