Sociology of Culture Commons^™

The Perceptions And Effects Of Schools' Names On Black Professional Educators And Their Students, Gregg Suzanne Ferguson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

It is obvious that there is a variety of perspectives that the educational environment needs to sensitively reflect to serve a diverse society equitably. In Southern communities, in particular, distortions of heritage are conflated with local governance that control public money, public memory, public value, public health, and public landscape, including the public school environment and marginalizes further historically marginalized groups. This qualitative study was grounded in critical race and cultural geography theories that examined dominant paradigms in the educational environment which shape identity. This dissertation explored the effect(s) of race and racism in the educational environment from the perspective …

"This Isn't For You, This Is For Me": Women In Cosplay And Their Experiences Combatting Harassment And Stigma, Christopher M. Lucas

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In the past two decades, cosplay, or “costume play,” has become increasingly popular among fans of anime, manga, and video games. Despite the community’s nature of embracing social difference, problems persist with regard to gender discrimination and breaching of consent boundaries. Discussion in the extant literature on cosplay has yet to address the views of women in the community, specifically the idea of cosplay and popular culture conventions being a “boys’ club.” The principle research questions of this study are: (1) What are the lived experiences of women cosplayers at anime conventions? (2) To what degree have they had to …

Nationalism In Cyprus: The Effects Of Institutionalization On Nationalist Mobilizations And Political Conflicts As Reflected In Turkish Cypriot Nationalism And Greek Cypriot Nationalism, Nicel Masarogullari

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Historical events in Cyprus have played a very important role in the institutionalization of nationalist movements and political conflict between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot nationalist movements on the island of Cyprus. In order to make the case of the “Cyprus problem” understandable, the sociological elements of the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot nationalism of the island were analyzed in this study in relation to some fundamental elements of the conflict. Internal and external elements including nationalism, the role of outsiders, modernization, and some other cultural factors, such as the educational and religious systems and colonial policies, played an …

Not Your Father’S Border: An Examination Of The Border In Northern Ireland And Its Relevance To The Global Change In The Importance Of World Borders, Aaron Patterson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Humanity has long maintained barriers separating specific entities from others. Ranging from cultural, religious, financial, and racial differences among a few others, the reasoning behind borders has remained a purely human endeavor. But our current golden age of technology has somewhat shrunk, or at least reassessed the necessity for borders. The boundaries of today, while many remain in the same locations as in the past, are vastly different from the borders created by previous generations. Globalization, a relatively new term, has made communication simple and fast. The noticeable result has been, of course, better communication between locations, and thus easing …

Balancing Belief : The Resolution Of Belief Dilemmas, Andrew J. Borders Iii

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Societies create their own worlds and, once created, these worlds have to be maintained. In particular, the plausibility of these worlds has to be legitimized for each new generation. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an instrument that will measure how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious world. I have constructed a survey that will explore the social matrix encompassing a person’s religious beliefs, the actual beliefs themselves, and the extent to which they are certain of these beliefs. To determine how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious beliefs in an increasingly secularized world, I have …

An Analysis Of The Stereotypes Of Preacher’S Kids And Its Application On Their Spouses, Tara J. Allman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to discover the results of the effects of stereotypes and under what conditions certain stereotypes occur. The focus of this study is to examine stereotypes connected to the children of a Protestant minister and the spouses of those children. Ethnographic interviews and surveys show that the stereotype does exist in two distinct ways. Children of ministers are expected to either be rebellious hellions or they are expected to be perfect role models. The stereotypes affect the respondents more as children and teenagers than as adults unless as an adult the child still attends the …

Socialization And Attitudes: Effects Of Religion, Political Identification, And Class, 1972-2002, Melissa Kimmel

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study analyzes the effects on culture wars attitudes of socialization into religion, political identification, and class on culture war type attitudes. Stepwise OLS and Logistic regression models were used to determine which of the three social institutions would have greatest impact on the attitudes: abortion for reasons beyond one’s control, abortion for willful reasons, capital punishment, prayer in schools, interracial marriage, teaching sex education in schools, homosexuality, premarital sex and extramarital sex. The findings support the theory that religion is the primary social institution involved in the development of culture war attitudes.

Welfare As A Social Control In The United States, Jimmi Sue Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The question is whether the Clinton Administration “reforms” were a revolutionary concept or an extension of history’s pattern of forgetting the “deserving poor” and ignoring the “undeserving poor”. A literature search was conducted focusing on the deserving and undeserving poor in the United States over the past century. Historically, the deserving poor were defined as people who were impoverished as a consequence of old age, mental illness, physical illness and blindness or widowed and orphaned. The undeserving poor were people who were able to work, but did not and people of color. There have been occasions when the unemployed were …

Punishing The Poor: America’S Use Of The Welfare System As A Means Of Controlling The Impoverished, Jill R. Foley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Throughout America’s history, various welfare assistance programs have been implemented in an attempt to prevent the poor from coordinating a social uprising to overturn capitalism. Applying sociologist Karl Marx’s theories on capitalism and the presence of a false versus a class consciousness one can trace the growth of industrialization in American with the increasing efforts devoted to subduing the impoverished. Actions ranging from the imprisonment of the poor to child saving in the 1700 and 1800s to the use of police force to dissipate uprisings of the indigent in the 1900s provide evidence of the government's continued efforts to prevent …

Am I My Neighbor's Keeper : Toward A Community-Based Model Of Local Violence, George F. Bills

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this exploratory concurrent mixed methods study is to better understand the community context of domestic batterer intervention systems (Gondolf, 2002) by converging demographic trends in crime and arrest, family income, and marriage and divorce rates with community status indicators and marital conflict themes. In the study, county-level Uniform Crime Reports data, US Census data, and Vital Statistics data will be used to analyze community differences in social context and patterns of domestic violence in Cabell County, WV and Lawrence County, OH. At the same time, the local domestic batterer intervention system in Cabell County, WV, will be …

Experiences Of Japanese War Brides And Assimilation Into Appalachia: Understanding The Intersection Of Ethnicity And Gender, Kyoko Kondo

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This qualitative study analyzes the acculturation and assimilation of Japanese war brides into Appalachia. Although the Japanese female immigrants have lived in Appalachia for many years, their life experiences have been ignored by academia in Appalachian studies. A purpose of this study is to advance the understanding what social mechanisms impact the assimilation of the Japanese war brides and what it means for them to live in this society. By using oral history with open-ended questions, data is gathered from in-depth interviews with four Japanese war brides. The study finds retention of ethnic identity, recovery of cultural heritage, and social …

From The Southeast To Fort Ancient: A Survey Of Shell Gorgets In West Virginia, Darla Spencer Hoffman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

One of the most unique and artistic artifacts found throughout the eastern United States is the engraved shell gorget. During late prehistoric and protohistoric times many of these gorgets were transported from the Southeast, where they were associated with the Mississippian Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, into Fort Ancient territory.

Engraved shell gorgets can be traced to their region of origin, indicating prehistoric trade networks that were in place throughout the eastern United States. In addition, the gorgets can serve as temporal markers to order late prehistoric and protohistoric Fort Ancient sites in time.

Shell gorgets are found mainly in a burial …