Sociology of Culture Commons^™

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.

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 …

Farming As Life: Reframing Smallholder Farming As A Site Of Self-Sufficiency And Cultural Heritage In Botswana, Natasha Yen

Pitzer Senior Theses

Dominant neoliberal frameworks often frame smallholder farming through a deficiency lens, reducing it to metrics of productivity, efficiency, and profitability. These perspectives overlook the deeper material, cultural, and social significance that farming holds in the lives of smallholder farmers. In Botswana—where approximately 70% of the rural population engages in smallholder farming—farming remains a vital part of everyday life, yet few studies adopt a culturalist or holistic lens to examine its meaning. To center smallholder farmers’ lived experiences and perspectives, this study is based on semi-structured interviews with ten smallholder farmers in southeast Botswana. Grounded in a culturalist framework and critical …

Love Is Dead In The Restless West: Hippies, Manson, And California Culture, 1966-1970, Rebecca Allen

Scripps Senior Theses

Though an extreme aberration from most of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s, Charles Manson’s ultimately murderous cult arguably represents something particular about American culture in the late sixties, in which youthful hostility towards the status quo sometimes grew radical, and in the case of the Manson Family cult, extremely violent. By the mid-sixties, more and more young people began to feel alienated by a culture they felt no longer embodied their larger aspirations, and as a result, were drawn to the emerging counterculture that embraced alternative lifestyles that frequently clashed with the traditional sensibilities of their parents’ generation. After …

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 …

The Meanings Of The Hospital De San Lázaro In Seventeenth-Century Manila, Francis Galasi

Journal of Global Catholicism

The Hospital de San Lázaro was a specialized health facility in the early modern Philippines, dedicated to the care of lepers and sufferers of other contagious diseases. While it was established for this specific purpose, its role in colonial society varied. This versatility reflected the distinct priorities and commitments of the groups pulled into its orbit, as each charged San Lázaro with a unique meaning. This article explores how and why these groups—the indigenous Filipinos, the Spanish residents and the Discalced Franciscans—understood San Lázaro in their own way. It highlights the ability of fixed institutions, such as a hospital, to …

Halfies, Half-Written Letters, And One-Eyed Gods: Connecting The Dots Of Communicative Cultures, Gregory Stephens

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay distills the theory of communicative cultures as a tool for cultural analysis. Nadine Gordimer’s line about the difficulties of returning to “half-written letters” is used to frame anthropology’s critique of “bounded culture” or “container cultures,” predominat in Cultural Studies. Anthropologists Lila Abu-Lughod and Kirin Narayan have described “halfies” as in-between peoples who can help us understand fluid, processual cultures as normative. Building on this stance, and the work of rhetorical genre scholars, Stephens defines communicative cultures as “a set of shared commitments expressed through cultural means.” This approach to cultural analysis, in which literature is viewed as an …

Call And Response : Experiments In Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes

Masters Theses

Being part of RISD's inaugural Masters of Illustration cohort has been an immense honor. This journey has been nothing short of transformative and healing, as it has allowed me to unearth layers of self-discovery through my creative practice.

In my thesis, I introduce a fresh research methodology rooted in the principles of call and response, with adaptability, creativity, and storytelling as its foundational pillars. Through the lenses of visual storytelling, experimental animation, graphic journalism, and fictional world-building, I demonstrate how these techniques can effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice. This dynamic approach fosters meaningful connections among diverse perspectives …

Sedimented For The Future: Can Technology Sustain Tradition?, Nihal Bursa

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Turkish coffee is unique in its brewing technique and deeply rooted in the culture developed throughout the Ottoman geography since the sixteenth century. The knowledge, skills and rituals of Turkish coffee are transmitted to new generations through observation, participation and practicing. Be it an elaborate ritual at the Ottoman court or a modest peasant pleasure, Turkish coffee requires dedicated time, manual skills and decorum. The pace of industrialization and urbanization in the twenty-first century forced people to acquire new lifestyles. This has put Turkish coffee service in jeopardy especially in public spaces. Owing to the Turkish coffee machine designed by …

The Little Black Book: When Recipes Tell Stories, Cordula C. Peters

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

In post-war Germany in the 1950s my grandmother used to collect recipes from magazines, newspapers, and the backs of food packaging that she neatly cut out and saved. Other recipes were carefully copied with pen and ink. At some point, when my mother was still a child and my grandmother still alive, she and her sister compiled all these recipes and tidily pasted them into a black notebook for safekeeping. Growing up many of the recipes from this book became much-loved dishes prepared by my mother and expected by my siblings and I almost religiously for important holidays such as …

An Abundance Of Cakes: How A National Trauma Created A Unique Culinary Practice In Southern Jutland, Nina Bauer

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The southern part of Jutland has its very own distinct food culture and traditions. Its history differs from other parts of Denmark because this region was under German rule from 1864 until the Reunification in 1920. Special laws were imposed to curtail the population’s political and cultural ties to Denmark. Any political gatherings or sentiments were strictly forbidden. However, cooking was free of restrictions and cooking thus became one of the primary ways to hold onto a Danish identity. This led to a conservation of recipes and traditions that were disappearing in other Danish regions. The farm wives became the …

The Wild Arctic Char In Swedish Sápmi – From Staple Ingredient To Nostalgic Food, Julia C. Carrillo Ocampo

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The way food is preserved, prepared and consumed is embedded in cultural symbolism strongly connected to the geographical landscape. This article focuses on the memories of Sami actors within the wild Arctic char value chain to explore how changes in the foodscape influence the way this produce is prepared and consumed in contemporary Sápmi and the use and view of traditional preservation techniques. The empirical material was obtained through interviews and observations with Sami actors as they are the dominant agents related to this produce. Consequently, I traced different narratives attached to the char in the region called Swedish Sápmi …

The Subconscious Of Traditional Practices: Turkish Cuisine, Serife Umay Cicik

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Turkey stands out among the leading countries, particularly in the consumption of meat, milk, and dairy products. In terms of climate and physical conditions, it has the capacity to produce these commodities domestically. Additionally, it is situated in a geographically advantageous position rich in seafood resources. Turkish cuisine is further enriched by dishes and desserts prepared with dough. However, food preparation and cooking methods, equipment, storage conditions, presentation styles, consumption habits, spices, and sauces bear traces of various culinary cultures. Wars, natural disasters, political events, trade routes, and religious structures are among the factors that most significantly influence these differences. …

The Appliance Of Science: Traditions And Change In Food Preparation Using Small Domestic Electrical Appliances, Susan Bailey

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Food preparation in a domestic context has evolved through the application of technology. When electricity became available and motors to power appliances were developed from the late nineteenth century onwards, this made a significant change to the use of appliances for food preparation from post-Second World War onwards. This paper explores the history of and increasing use of small domestic electrical appliances used for food preparation and their development and transition from a commercial to a domestic context. Between the 1950s and 1980s in Britain, the development and promotion of a range of new small domestic electrical appliances were important …

Lost But Not Found: Southern Appalachia, Migration Patterns, And Culinary Tourism, Ashli Q. Stokes, Wendy Atkins-Sayre

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Despite growing acknowledgement of the variety of cultures that developed Southern Appalachia’s cuisine, some popular food writing continues to highlight the so-called insular nature of its food, drink, and culinary festivals. Regional tourists, especially those visiting its Blue Ridge or Smoky mountains, also remain likely to experience a delimited, often problematic Scots-Irish or white-European pioneer past, including when they eat and drink. Billboards advertise the outlaw Hatfield and McCoy Dinner Show, visitors choose from moonshine tastings in dilapidated looking but new distilleries, and diners enjoy gourmet biscuits alongside gravy “flights” at trendy restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina. Appalachian Studies and …

“Ptasie Mleczko,” “Schabowy” Or “Pierogi”? Polish Foods And Dishes In Ireland, Marzena Keating

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Following the accession of ten Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union in 2004, Ireland witnessed the influx of migrants, the largest group coming from Poland. To cater for their culinary needs specialized shops and dining establishments started to emerge in cities and towns across Ireland. Well-established supermarket chains, such as, for example, Supervalu, Tesco and Lidl, began selling typical Polish food products that would appeal to this community. Various events celebrating Polish traditions, including culinary ones, have been organized throughout Ireland. Additionally, Polish recipes have often occurred in Irish local and national newspapers. This research, based on …

To The Taste Of Ghurba: Diasporic Food And Oral Memories Of Tunisia In Europe, Gabriele Proglio

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

During an oral history research on the larger European open-air market in Turin, called “Porta Palazzo,” Tunisian people replied to my questions using the Tunisian-Arab word ghurba in order to define their condition of being in diaspora. Ghurba is a specific emotion about the condition of separation and estrangement. It is used for describing the situation of being a foreigner, migrant, illegal, invisible in a land away from home. For this reason, it evokes a state of abandonment, loneliness, isolation but also it is used for yearning a reconnection and socialization with an idea of community based on memories of …

Pork Problems - Embodied Britishisms Onboard The First Fleet To Australia, Evelyn Lambeth

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Pigs arrived in Australia with British settlers onboard the First Fleet in 1788 and rapidly spread. As a product of British Imperialism, Australia has adopted many cultural consumption practices from its parent colony. Meat is on many tables, but not every table showcases the same animal, and these cultural differences illustrate that conditions of edibility are not equally defined. British values were attached to pigs, embedding them with transformative abilities to shape colonial ecosystems. Australian industries, jobs, and livelihoods are deeply connected to the past. The East India Company introduced Chinese pigs to Britain from 1685. The history of pigs …

The Women Eat Last: Traditions, Table Manners, And Gender Narratives At The Romanian Dining Table, Alexandra Constantinescu

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Rooted in a rich history, with decades of oppressive politics and patriarchal displays of power, Romanian culture is shaped by complex narratives of resistance, endurance, adaptation, and transformation. Gender discourses in traditional Romanian culture portray women as the ideal frontline worker, heroic mother, outstanding housewife and an active member of the community. Expected to sacrifice personal aspirations and lifestyle for the well-being of others, they would almost exclusively be tasked with sourcing, preparing, and serving food for the family. They would be the last to sit at the family dining table - and the last to eat. In contrast, the …

An Urban Vegetable Garden: A Blooming For The Food Memory Of The Future, Cynthia Luderer

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This work concerns an urban vegetable garden beyond 200 plots in Famalicão (northern Portugal) and aims to check out mnemic narratives circulating there linked to gastronomy and technical agricultural resources that have been used in the past. This research has been developed since last December/2022 and will check this environment for four seasons of the year. Its methodology is based on an ethnographic exercise, using flanerie dynamics and the application of interviews with open-ended questions. This analysis is supported by the Anthropology of Food, the concept of Collective Memory, by Halbwachs, and the Semiotics of Culture, by Iuri Lotman, approaching …

“Praying And Eating”: The Preservation Of Jewish Food Traditions In The Wake Of Brexit Trauma, Angela Hanratty

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This research examines the impact that Brexit, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the Windsor Framework have had on the food traditions of the Jewish population of Ireland, through focusing on the lived experience of the Jewish communities of Belfast and Dublin and their collective memory. While there has been much debate on the lasting effect of the UK leaving the EU on industry and agriculture, the deleterious impact on the kosher observant in Ireland has been less documented, with specific challenges for the preservation of food traditions in a community with a history “full of praying and eating” (Maurice Cohen, …

Between Memory And History: Irish Pubs As Sites Of Memory And Invention, Perry Share, Moonyoung Hong

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

The pub has been at the centre of Irish culture and identity for at least two centuries, has become a pillar of the Irish tourism “product,” and an export commodity as thousands of themed “Irish pubs” have been established across the world in the last number of decades, supplementing existing establishments that have served the global Irish community. This paper draws on key themes from the diverse material in our upcoming academic volume on the Irish pub, to be published by Cork University Press, later in 2024. The book brings together contributions from scholars of history, sociology, design, literature, culinary …

Forbidden Fruit: Mary Cassatt’S Mural Of “Modern Woman” At The World’S Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893, Tricia Cusack

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

This paper considers a large mural of “The Modern Woman” painted in France by the American artist Mary Cassatt for the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. It focuses in particular on the large central panel of the mural titled Young Women Plucking the Fruits of Knowledge or Science that depicts women and girls apple-picking. Cassatt’s mural drew on various traditions and myths. Apple harvesting was a common sight in America. Cassatt’s title though points to the story of Eve and forbidden fruit, in which Eve seeks knowledge, but is severely punished for it. Cassatt …

Bittersweet Spirits: Transnational Food Memory And The Persistent Production Of Non-Mainstream Alcohol In Trinidad, Shrinagar Indra Francis

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Whether we perceive the process of food leaving its mark on our culture as a function of genetic or collective memory, or a combination, informs the ways we interrogate the continued existence of these foods and their practices across time and landscapes. Within the postcolonial context, the process of re-embodiment is an inherently bittersweet one in that it comes as a consequence of loss and rupture and is motivated by a desire to be remade. Prior to colonialism, the production of alcohol was a profound aspect of the lives of the many peoples of West and West-Central Africa. Descendants of …

Playing With International Students From Asia: An Exploration Of Cultural Commonalities And Differences In Developmental Transformations (Dvt), Hazuki Okamoto

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Asian international students in the United States face a multitude of challenges such as language barriers, differences in cultural norms and behaviors, and identity confusion while navigating a foreign landscape. Developmental Transformations (DvT), a form of drama therapy, may apply to these challenges by enabling participants to explore different identities and express themselves creatively beyond the language barrier. This community engagement project was designed for Asian international students to be seen and heard by utilizing DvT. Within an in-person workshop, five participants played with their shared stories, and explored international and cultural roles in group DvT. Key takeaways from the …

Picturing Consumer Culture, Cultural Hybridity, And Womanhood: Farah Al Qasimi’S Photographs From 2012 To 2020, Minji Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Farah Al Qasimi’s 2012-2020 color photographs, arguing that this work presents a distinctive and salient critique of domesticity, material culture, and womanhood in the UAE. Through her lens as a woman and a culturally hybrid subject, Al Qasimi explores the tensions of modernization, globalization, consumerism, and gender.

Museum Dan Sekolah: Sinergi Kebijakan Demokratisasi Kebudayaan Melalui Program Pembelajaran Seni Dan Budaya Di Kota La Rochelle - Prancis, Agung Wibowo, Dwi Winarsih, Atik Catur Budiati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Our article describes the relationship between museums and schools as a policy of democratisation of French culture, a policy that has encouraged the ministry of education and the ministry of culture to work together in designing arts and culture learning programmes in museums and in schools. The case study of the implementation of the national policy of democratisation of culture by the municipality of La Rochelle is an important consideration that can help us to understand how the locality of public policy implementation in France can contribute specific characteristics to the cultural development and management of museums and schools. Arts …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

How I Obtained My Phd Admission Letter: A Reflective Interaction-Based Autoethnography, Qing Xu, Kei Wei Chia

The Qualitative Report

This account utilises autoethnography to explore how the “one-child generation’s” cultural context influences behaviours and character traits, focusing on the first author’s experiences during a 5-month doctoral program application. It examines interactions with the employer, unacquainted individuals, intermediaries, and family, encapsulated in three Episodes, to analyse the personality traits of this generation. The findings reveal that, though deeply rooted in traditional culture, character traits such as risk aversion, caution, and family dependency are not immutable. It highlights the potential for personal transformation through inward growth, proactive external engagement, and the support of families who challenge traditional norms. In terms of …

Autopathography Across Media: Trauma And Fluid Embodied Subjectivity, He (Kristen) Shen

Honors Theses

Illness memoirs with first-person point of view have gained more attention in recent years among medical sociologists and anthropologists. Different from traditional “case histories”written by doctors that are in danger of ignoring patients’ voices, autopathograhical works delineate narrators’ transformative experiences of persons to patients, emphasizing the importance of gaining social understanding of illness. Focusing on three works within the category of autopathography across genres and media forms in the late 1950s and contemporary periods, The Cancer Journals (1980) written by Audre Lorde, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019) written by Esmé Weijun Wang, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed …