Anthropology Commons^™

Honors Students’ Perceptions Of The Strength And Growth Areas Of Liberty’S Honors Program: An Ethnography, Nyah V. Gray

Senior Honors Theses

In her pursuit of both exploring and documenting Liberty University’s Honors culture, the author takes an ethnographic research approach; surveying existing literature on the history and development of Liberty’s Honors Program, expounding upon the concept of honors culture, surveying the effects of the new Honors College track’s implementation, and identifying honors students’ perceptions of the strengths and growth areas of the Honors Program. This study includes a literature review, the collection of 12 formal interviews, and use of the participant observation research method to analyze Liberty honors students’ perceptions of the program; ultimately ascertaining what they believe to be the …

Unearthing Silence: Deaf Archaeology As A Pathway To Social Justice And Accessibility, Abigail H. Steiner

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Deaf archaeology is an emerging field exploring the material culture, spaces, and histories of Deaf communities to understand their social lives and identities. This paper examines Deaf archaeology as a framework for uncovering the historical presence of Deaf individuals and promoting social justice. It begins by defining deafness, contrasting medical and cultural perspectives, then traces the field’s roots in sign language evolution, marginalization, and Deaf education. Through a timeline of findings, the study reveals how Deaf individuals have been recognized or overlooked historically. Engaging with the Southern Tier Deaf community, I explore accessible archaeology and the role of Deaf archaeology …

Towards A Pedagogy Of Unruly Bodyminds, Muhammad Ali Imran, Jane L. Saffitz

Feminist Pedagogy

This commentary underscores critical practices from Jane’s “Unruly Bodies” seminar that Ali, a student in the course and Jane’s advisee, has since mobilized towards anti-colonial organizing. Purposely experimental, the seminar attempted to rethink embodiment as intercorporeal and thus as capable of generating new ways to think about agency and solidarity in contexts marred by forms of militarization, medical violence, and histories of domination. Thinking through our bodyminds as both terrains of contestation and weapons in broader struggles for liberation required us to cultivate a classroom space of radical openness and vulnerability. We describe these efforts, as well as our broader …

Sculpting A Program On Unsteady Ground: Tensions, Issues, And Possibilities In Theimplementation Of Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion In Georgia, Andrés Villalba , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Nexus Between Food Insecurity And School Readiness: A Comprehensive Analysis In Ghana, Michael Atuahene Djan, Emmanuel Yeboah, Isaac Sarfo, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, Abraham Okrah, Desmond Nii Ayitey Mettle-Nunoo, Ben Emunah Aikins, Asante Vincent Antwi, Clement Issaka Anaba, Clement Kwang

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

This study delves into the multifaceted challenges of food insecurity and its profound impact on school readiness among children in Ghana. Utilizing data from the Ghana Statistical Service and the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis, and employing ArcGIS for spatial analysis, the research maps high food insecurity areas and overlays population density to prioritize interventions. Findings reveal a stark concentration of food insecurity in northern Ghana, worsened by adverse weather conditions, underscoring the urgency for targeted interventions. The study highlights how food insecurity extends beyond nutritional deficits, affecting socio-economic structures and family dynamics. Children in food-insecure households face significant …

This Needs More Time!: Considerations For Improving Partnerships Between Communities And Institutions In Folklore, Sarah M. Gordon, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Junious Lee Brickhouse, Ashley Minner Jones, Naomi Sturm-Wijesinghe

Art Faculty Publications

From 2021 to 2023, the authors convened a series of discussion forums at the annual meetings of the American Folklore Society to discuss the challenges of community-institutional partnerships in the field of folklore. This perspectives piece presents the outcomes of that series of panels with the goal of advancing adaptability in institutional practices to better support community-engaged work. We seek to promote practices that better respond to community needs in collaborative partnerships through disciplinary norms and institutional bureaucratic mechanisms.

Indigenous Artists Working With Digital Materials, Luke A. Meeken

Teaching Resource Archive

This is a static PDF version of the online resource found here: https://www.gildedgreen.com/indigital This document contains the five thematic curricular modules from the online resource but does not contain the always-growing online database of contemporary Indigenous digital artists, who can be found at the above link.

This resource includes several thematic modules designed for use by educators of preservice art teachers, which can be adapted for use in graduate and undergraduate level courses (and parts of which will be deployed in my own elementary and secondary methods courses). These could be used in whole or in part, and are designed …

Glitched Humanity: A Digital Media Arts Advocacy Project, Shelly Maloney

Teaching Resource Archive

This lesson includes an original sample project and website that directs students towards learning how to utilize digital glitch art to create advocacy or raise awareness for the social, cultural, environmental, or political issue of their choice. It is designed to engage students in critical thinking skills, cross-curricular connections, reflective writing, digital art making, group discussion, and peer review.

Artists can use video and other media sources to explore the self-destructive tendencies of human nature (i.e. violence/war, consumption, and/or carelessness/environmental neglect) or other social, cultural, or political issues using digital manipulation, layered imagery, sound, and video.

Layers Of Identity, Elizabeth Toffel

Teaching Resource Archive

Students explore identity, specifically that identity is layered, shaped by personal experience, cultural background, community ties, and unique traits. Students conduct interviews with peers, reflect on identity components, both individually and collectively, and create a layer artwork on transparent acetate sheets. When stacked the layers visually showcase the layers of the student’s identity and represent how identity is complex, constructed, and always shaped by multiple influences.

Campus Legends And Mysteries: Building Institutional Identity Through Campus Lore, Viktoria Basham

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay presents an honors course designed to help students develop a holistic understanding of institutional history and identity while engaging with university culture. Author describes how students conduct research on the history, traditions, and local lore of both their home institution and broader geographic region by using a variety of campus resources and archival collections. Strong and personal bonds with the university are the touchstone for creating projects (n = 17) that contribute to campus lore, thereby extending student narratives to add to, enrich, and preserve an evolving institutional identity. Author suggests that course offerings such as this can …

Book Review - Language Ideologies And Linguistic Identity In Heritage Language Learning., Michelle F. Ramos Pellicia

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

No abstract provided.

40 Years Passing By In (A) “Heartbeat”, Christopher Janney

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This article outlines the forty-year history go Christopher Janney’s iconic performance work “HeartBeat.” Trained as an architect and jazz musician, Janney combines these two disciplines to create large interactive light/sound installations and performances. On the one hand, he attempts to make architecture more like music, more “alive” using real-time sensing devices as on his “Harmonic Convergence” installation on the Miami International Airport. On the other hand, he attempts to make music more like architecture, more physical more visual. In his “HeartBeat” performance, a dancer wears a heartbeat device that amplifies his/her heartbeat in “real time.” Over this pulse, live musicians …

Yoga Sūtra Book Four And The Yogabindu, Christopher Key Chapple

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Four themes from the fourth pāda of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra are examined here: karma (IV:2-13), individuality (IV:16), humility (IV:20-22), and freedom (IV:29-34). Affirmations and variant interpretations of these four are provided from Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yogabindu, most likely composed a century or two later.

Collective Karma: From The Yogasūtra To Taylor Swift, Zoë Slatoff

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Indian knowledge traditions speak at length about karma, which is divided into three categories—accumulated (saṃcita), ripe (prārabdha), and future (kriyamāṇa). While much is said about our individual karma and how it affects our repeated reincarnation in cyclic existence, how does this affect others and how do others affect us? In other words, as this paper explores, what is our reciprocal and collective karma?

Painting Liberation: A Visual Ontology Of The Interplay Of Mind And Consciousness In Book Four Of The Yoga Sūtras, Melissa Townsend

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This presentation explores how artistic practice can illuminate philosophical questions about the nature of mind, consciousness, and liberation as articulated in Book Four of the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. Through a series of paintings that visually translate these sūtras, I propose that art offers a unique, experiential means of engaging with the complex relationship between citta (mind) and puruṣa (consciousness).

The paintings function as a form of “visual ontology,” inviting viewers to engage with abstract philosophical concepts in a sensory, tangible way. By depicting the interplay between the mutable processes of the mind and the unchanging awareness of consciousness, these …

Asian American Navigation In Higher Education: Do We Belong At Colby College?, Amanda Rose Alpert

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how Asian American students navigate their belonging at Predominantly White Institutions (PWI), specifically a case study at the higher educational institution Colby College. In understanding how Asian American students navigate the spaces around them, this thesis dives into the history of Asian immigration to the U.S., the Asian American politicized label, and the different diasporas and cultural nuances Asian Americans experience that make up the complicated, diverse, and misunderstood label. Through exploring global racializations of Asian bodies and legacies of Western imperialism and colonialism, this gives a basis of how Asian Americans understand themselves as persons living …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

A Critical Approach To Analyzing And Addressing Worldview-Based Cultural Conflict Between Indigenous Peoples And Western Science In Education And Research, Deborah H. Williams

Sabbatical Projects

Intercultural conflict exists in science education and research, I argue as a result of differences between the Western scientific worldview and the Indigenous worldview. Native Americans are the most underrepresented group in STEM, and this has been the case, in my personal experience for over two decades. Western science is not universal or acultural, Indigenous peoples have their own ways of knowing founded on different philosophical assumptions and recognizing metaphysical phenomena and explanations that are rejected by Western science and the positivist/post-positivist paradigm. Through the power of colonial privilege, scientists, science departments, and science disciplines have been able to erect …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2025, 145th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Biological and Medical Sciences

Biology

Chemistry

Earth Sciences

Science Education

Anthropology

Applied Science and Technology

Physics and Engineering

Forensic Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Maiben Lecture: Mary Ann Vinton, "State of the Academy"

Friends of Science Awards: David Crouse and Daniel Sitzman

The Demand For Educational Functions Of Study Tour Products: From Students’ Perspectives, Yaqi Yu, Azizan Marzuki

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Few academic studies have comprehensively examined the actual demands of students regarding the educational function of study tours. This paper develops a demand index system based on three dimensions: cognitive, affective, and behavioral demands. A questionnaire survey was administered to 397 students. Initially, student demands were categorized using the Kano model. Subsequently, the “dependence” and “expectancy” characteristics were analyzed through the dissatisfaction index (DI) and satisfaction index (SI). The impact of fulfilling each demand on dissatisfaction and satisfaction levels was then determined. The results indicated that among the three dimensions, there were 7 must-be demands, 6 one-dimensional demands, 8 attractive …

Florida’S Gifted Education Program: Exploring The Nexus Between Giftedness And Choice Of College Major, Sterlin L. Bass

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Florida’s Gifted Education Program (FGEP) is a K-12 educational program in Florida’s public education system through which gifted students are identified and supported through individualized educational plans promoting intellectual development. The intent of this study is to explore the influence Florida’s Gifted Education Program has on the choice of major of a student and mental health outcomes. Current data revolving around different definitions of “giftedness” such as high ACT scores, SAT scores, and GPA, show a connection between negative mental health outcomes produced by the development of perfectionism. FGEP presents challenges in addressing these concerns due to non-standardized curricula across …

Heritage And Archaeological Knowledge Dissemination Strategies: A Kurd Qaburstan Case Study, Myli R. Sangria

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis addresses the long-standing absence of community archaeology initiatives in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by designing and implementing a pilot public archaeology program at the site of Kurd Qaburstan, a large Middle Bronze Age city (ca. 1800 BCE) located on the Erbil Plain. In summer 2024, the author implemented a community archaeology activity designed as a first step toward sustained engagement with the village that partially overlaps the site. The program—a hands-on lesson in archaeological stratigraphy for K–5 students, followed by a guided site visit—was intentionally simple, affordable, and easy to carry out alongside ongoing fieldwork. The activity …

The Impact Of Whiteness Among Black College Students' Racial Identity, La'quida Reneé Smith

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

Although the impact of racism is well-documented in both conceptual and empirical research on the experiences of Black college students, some scholars have pointed out that many of the negative, race-based experiences these students face on college campuses extend beyond overt acts of racism (e.g., individual racism, institutional racism; Gusa, 2010; Hargons et al., 2022; Ingram & Wallace, 2019; Le et al., 2020; Smith et al., 2011; Tyler et al., 2022). Whiteness has been identified as an overt factor shaping the lived experiences of Black individuals (Leonardo, 2009; Matias, 2016; Tyler et al., 2022) and is, therefore, believed to impact …

Teacher Perception On The Implementation Of A Culturally Responsive Ela Curriculum, Erica Tate Dial

Theses and Dissertations

While the principles of culturally responsive and culturally relevant teaching hold transformative potential, they can only be fully realized if educators are genuinely equipped and empowered to implement them. This qualitative study examined teacher perceptions of an English Language Arts curriculum through the lens of culturally relevant and culturally responsive teaching. A diverse group of teachers, varying in experience, age, gender, and race, were interviewed to gather a range of perspectives on the implementation of this curriculum. The study focused on addressing the following research questions: 1. What are teachers’ perceptions of culturally responsive and culturally relevant instruction and academic …

Unmasking The Nexus Of Race, Ethnicity, And Health: An Intersectional Analysis Of The Epistemology Of Race In Medicine, Medical Curricula, And Health Disparities, Antoinette Leonard-Jean Charles

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The persistent health disparities faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the United States are deeply rooted in systemic racism embedded within medical education and clinical practice. Historical acceptance of racial supremacy in the United States has shaped both the foundations and continued practices of medical education, leading to entrenched biases that affect healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. This dissertation critically examines the intersection of race, education, and health by analyzing how historical and contemporary understandings of race and ethnicity shape medical curricula, healthcare practices, and patient care. Through the integration of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Social …

Place-Based Learning Practices: A Diptych Case Study Of Human And More-Than-Human Relationality At The Tribal And Western Academic Institutional Interface, Karley M. Rojas-Vienneau

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The ‘Place-Based Learning Practices Project’ is a graduate project under the Native American Studies Department Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute (FSL). Making contributions at the intersection of Western academia and Indigenous science, it imagines and realizes content, policies, and protocols surrounding two case studies and the larger cal poly humboldt (cph) institution which respect, honor, and uplift Indigenous sovereignty and resurgence in partnership with the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe and the greater regional tribal community. Encompassing two projects internal and external to the institution, I aim to address the construction of controlled and protective environments …

Laudate Deum: A Framework For Environmental Stewardship And Social Justice In The Philippines And Southeast Asia, Antonio Levy S. Ingles Jr.

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

This study explores the intersection of environmental initiatives and social justice movements in the Philippines, a nation rich in biodiversity but acutely vulnerable to climate change and ecological degradation. Using Laudate Deum as a guiding framework, the research examines how the principles of Immediate Action, Collective Responsibility, and Social Justice can inform collaborative strategies to address these challenges. Through an analysis of case studies, this paper highlights the socio-economic impacts of environmental crises, such as deforestation and pollution, and evaluates initiatives like mangrove reforestation and community-based waste management for their ecological and social benefits. The findings reveal that integrating Laudate …

The Inspired And The Discouraged: School Board Service And Differential Effects On Political Ambition, Kelly Bergstrand, Beth Anne Shelton, Rebecca E. Deen

Open Initiatives Grant Funded Publications-Archive

Given the national attention on Texas and its school board meetings, we ask—what are the effects of a contentious political atmosphere on desires to run for higher office? Further, how does this experience interact with individual-level traits to affect ambition? To investigate, we distributed a survey to elected school board trustees in Texas and analyzed quantitative and qualitative responses from 380 respondents. We find divergent paths, with some inspired and others deterred from future politics. Specifically, city residents were more affected, positively or negatively, than rural residents. Political newcomers, those feeling qualified, and Democrats were more likely to express higher …

William Holmes Interviewing Rosetta Holmes Unm Oral History 300, William Holmes

Oral Histories HIST 300, Fall 2024

William Holmes interviews his grandmother Rosetta Holmes, a member of the Choctaw Nation, on her upbringing, life, and various stories from her childhood. She goes through how her family ended up in Hugo, Oklahoma. Her small town upbringing, how she met her husband, starting her family, and her education and the various jobs she has worked in her life. This was a project for oral history 300 at the University of New Mexico in which William used this opportunity to hear about his family and learn about his ancestors.

Arquetipos & Aventuras: La Identificación De Jugadores De Rol Con Personajes De Cultura De Masas, Miguel Á. Galindo Núñez, Víctor E. Quintana Villarreal

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

Este estudio explora la reiteración de figuras arquetípicas en la cultura de masas y su manifestación en los juegos de rol, particularmente en Dungeons and Dragons. Basado en la teoría de la mímesis de Aristóteles y los arquetipos de Jung, se analizará cómo roles estandarizados presentes en diversas culturas se replican en productos culturales contemporáneos. Desde la actancialidad de Barthes y la agencia de Giddens, se examinarán los arquetipos y su interpretación en narrativas de la cultura de masas.

Enfocándose en Dungeons and Dragons, el estudio destacará cómo las clases de personajes actúan como arquetipos y moldes predefinidos …