International and Intercultural Communication Commons^™

Measuring What Matters: Exploring Student Motivations To Inform International Student Recruitment, Rebecca Lubitz

Capstone Collection

Over the last decade, international students in the United States have surpassed the one million mark (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2016(a). Research found here highlights the goals and motivations of this growing constituency and examines factors that influence international students to choose educational experiences in the United States.

Two online surveys were distributed, one to international recruitment agents that work for UC Berkeley Extension, and another to international students. The paper examines survey responses along with existing research to offer data-driven theories on how international educators might more effectively approach student recruitment and program design. The research concluded that …

Intercultural Communication Training And Law Enforcement Officers: A Career-Span Analysis And Education Agenda, Amanda M. Franco

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

This thesis examines intercultural communication training and law enforcement education at the local level by means of a qualitative case study. Emphasis is given to the role of perceptions in law enforcement/community interactions as a means of understanding current relations between groups, as well as the role that cultural understanding of this should play in the creation of training curricula. There is a greater societal issue relative to interactions between minorities and law enforcement, and this research seeks to highlight how training, specifically training related to intercultural communication, can be impactful toward increasing understanding and mending group relations.

For this …

A Mixed Method Study Of A Former Special Operations Community: Identifying Factors That Effect Cross-Cultural Competency, John Phillip Buffin

All Theses And Dissertations

The September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks on the United States caused a series of military events, including the planning and deployment of troops to Afghanistan. In less than a month after that infamous September day, military Special Forces (SF) members and officers from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were operating in Afghanistan. The SF and CIA members were faced with not only the difficult geographical terrain but were hampered by inadequate time to prepare for the complicated human terrain of the Afghan culture.

In the initial months of the war, these deficiencies were not evident; however, over the next decade, …

Americans’ Willingness To Communicate With Mexican Immigrants: Effects Of Ethnocentrism And Immigration Status, Stephanie Leanne Harris

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Prompted by the 2016 United States (US) Presidential election, the topic of Mexican immigration has come to figure prominently in contemporary societal discourse. This study explores the willingness of US citizens to communicate with Mexicans as a function of US citizens’ ethnocentrism and Mexicans’ immigration documentation status. Specifically, this study measured ethnocentrism (Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997) and general willingness to communicate (McCroskey, 1992) of US citizens and then considered the relationship of these variables to their willingness to communicate with documented and undocumented Mexican immigrants. The study also explored the potential role that various lifespan variables, such as early communication …

Stitched Past, Sawyer Smith

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

“Stitched Past” tells the stories of vulnerable women in Lima, Peru. Despite the emotional and physical impacts of poverty, the women seek mentorship, education, and job security through Krochet Kids International. Krochet Kids, a U.S.-based non-profit organization, offers women in Peru and Uganda the opportunity to create knitwear to be sold online. In addition to gaining a new job and skill, the women receive counseling, affordable childcare, and supportive community. Krochet Kids approaches empowerment from a holistic perspective. The mentors encourage growth in five categories: financial, intellectual, physical, social, and psychological. This model of personal development ensures that the women …

#Reviewbowlinggreen: Food And Attractions Guide For International Students, Kanyawee Skulsillapakorn

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Being in a different country, far away from home, surrounded by strangers that speak a different language than your mother tongue is daunting. Most international students often feel out of place when they arrive in America for the first time. What can we do to change international students’ perspective of Bowling Green from one of being a “boring, small town” to a vibrant growing community? This project will use social media platform like Facebook to promote restaurants and other attractions. Users can write reviews of restaurants, shops, and places to visit in Bowling Green. By including the hashtag #ReviewBowlingGreen on …

Assessing The Influence Of Career-Linked Experiential Opportunities On The F-1 Undergraduate Student Enrollment Decision-Making Process, Harrison Fuerst

Capstone Collection

International mobility efforts in the United States have garnered increased attention and funding in recent years, with such government-led initiatives as Generation Study Abroad and 100,000 Strong driving up inbound and outbound student numbers. Recent inbound mobility reports from the Institute of International Education show double-digit percentage increases in international student enrollment. Other countries also experiencing an influx of international students continue to research these trends to shape their own education strategies. Research conducted by the International Education Association of Australia points specifically to hands-on professional experience and enhanced employability as key factors important to Australia’s international student population. As …

Bridges Out Of Poverty As An Anti-Poverty Strategy In Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Katlyn M. Uhler

Capstone Collection

This paper explores the initial results of the Bridges Out of Poverty (“Bridges”) community framework as implemented by the organization Kennett Area Community Service in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The aim of this research is to provide perspective on Bridges Out of Poverty’s contribution to the understanding of poverty in the United States and its potential as an antipoverty intervention. It does so first through an exploration of the historical and current discussion on poverty and anti-poverty interventions in the United States, followed by research on the Bridges model itself and its implementation in Kennett Square. This latter research includes content …

Negotiating Identity, Home, And Belonging: Understanding The Experiences Of African Women Refugees Resettled In The United States, Consolata Nthemba Mutua

Communication ETDs

The purpose of this study is to examine how former African women refugees negotiate their identity, sense of belonging, and home in the context of transnational displacement. To explore this topic, I conducted in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus group interviews with African women who came to the United States as refugees and who now live in two cities in the Southwestern and Midwestern United States. The resulting data was analyzed using both thematic and narrative analysis.

For this study, I recruited through a snowball/network sampling strategy a total of 20 former African women refugees and conducted 15 in-depth interviews, …

Humanature Relations In Oman: Connections, Disconnections And Globalization, Maryam A. Alhinai

Communication ETDs

In this dissertation, I explore agricultural practices as a window into ecocultural communication. Using agricultural practices of villagers in Village G, Oman, as a case study, I explore the ways in which villagers and government officials conceptualize humanature relations and the forces that enhance and/or impede these relations. My specific goals for this study were: (1) to build an interpretive understanding of ecocultural orientations of villagers and officials in Oman and how they conceptualize their humanature relations; (2) to critically examine ideologies and uncover structural forces that enable/constrain humanature relations; and (3) to co-create community engagement work that honors the …

Girls Are Us: A Collection Of Oral Histories From The Jmu Community, Anne M. Sherman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On a campus where women make up a majority of the student population, it is especially important that female voices are heard and given a platform on which they can control their own narrative. I wanted to give those female-identifying voices that platform. I conducted a series of interviews to examine how college-aged female-identifying students feel about their identity and how they construct that identity within the climate of the JMU community. I was particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and ability. I asked each person to share their stories of times when they …

Migrant Archives, Byronaé Lewis

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Migrant Archive is the cultural exploration of what design can be when it intertwines with the depth of ethnographic narratives . No longer allowing stationary boundaries to define where a culture begins and ends, as the space explores the migration patterns between divisions of each neighborhood within a city. The migrant hub works to capture and drop-off memory relics to tell the history of each region. The focus is to understand a culture through design while celebrating the positive and negative aspects within the past that have influenced the current moments.

Media Framing And Public Opinion Of Refugees: News Coverage Of Hungarian Refugees, 1956-57., Cecelia M. Hunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how United States news media framed Hungarian refugees of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It begins with a historical overview of the revolution and an explanation of how the media have framed other refugee groups and influenced American public opinion by doing so. Then the thesis explains how 713 news articles, coded for attributes and value frames, described Hungarian refugees from November 1956 until December 1957. American news media framed Hungarian refugees in a positive way, which matched the positive American public opinion of this particular refugee group. The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one introduces …

Media, Borders, And Citizenship: Internationalization And Social Justice In An Undergraduate Communication Program At A Public University In New England, Kristi Mientka

Capstone Collection

Higher education in the U.S. is becoming increasingly internationalized, a process which is necessitated by the global economy and the increase in communication and mobility across borders. The process of internationalization has many effects on institutions, programs, faculty, and students. It also has many purposes, among them to improve students’ future employability and to foster understanding of social issues. The communication discipline, which encompasses a variety of studies ranging from media production to interpersonal communication, has seen the effects of internationalization. Those effects are evident in evolving curriculum and pedagogy that reflect the shifting dynamics of the media landscape and …

Bilingual (Spanish-English) Marketing As A Catalyst For Cultural Awareness: The Effect On Parents In The Toy Market, Margo K. Bailey

Honors Scholar Theses

Due to globalization, multinational companies are increasingly cognizant of the language used in marketing materials. The growing Hispanic population in the U.S. and the increasing desire to learn and consume English in Spain makes marketers think twice about how they use language. This research is multi-method, using in-depth interviews and an experiment to learn more about how languages are used in advertisements to target monolingual and bilingual consumers within a country, and how consumers respond to monolingual and bilinguals advertisements.

I started by interviewing two marketing managers with experience in bilingual advertising in various media to better understand their decisions …

Exploring The Role Of Culture In Communication Conflicts: A Qualitative Study, Sadia Deep, Berhannudin Mohd Salleh, Hussain Othman

The Qualitative Report

This research article as a part of larger study intends to explore the role of culture in triggering communication conflicts among employees at the workplace. It also explores the role of Problem-based learning in resolving these culture based conflicts. Being a part of human life, conflict is a pervasive aspect of the socio-cultural and professional environment, especially at the workplace. The role of culture has one of the aspects that have played a pivotal role in initiating conflicts in the past. Using a qualitative research approach, this descriptive phenomenology study gathered data from semi-structured interviews from eighteen selected employees belonging …

Exploring Perceptions Of Goodness Among The Malaysian And Chinese University Students: A Focus Group Study, Madiha Hashmi, Moniza Waheed, Ezhar Tamam, Steven E. Krauss Dr., Abdul Muati Ahmad

The Qualitative Report

The notion of goodness is implicitly central to the discourse relating to person perception. To date, no empirical research has focused solely upon understanding the notion of goodness and how it’s perceived and discerned in others. Utilizing focus group interviews, this paper explores how people perceive and interpret goodness in collectivist cultures of Malaysia and China. Findings revealed that Malaysian and Chinese participants had somewhat similar notions about goodness. “Concern for others’ welfare” was found to have the most resonance across the two nationalities as a key element in discerning goodness in others. Another category emerging from the findings was …

Investigating Preferences For Patriarchal Values Among Muslim University Students In Southern Thailand, Mahsoom Sateemae, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Suhaimee Sateemae

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Recent research on Muslim populations has offered interesting but limited insights about values preferences. This mixed-methods study examines the prevalence of support for patriarchy among a sample of religious Muslim university students in Southern Thailand using items from the World Values Survey. It also investigates the durability of these preferences by examining correlations between support or opposition to patriarchal values with preferences towards courtship practices, and elements that influence respondents’ views on gender roles, particularly related to the contemporary socioeconomic and political situation facing the Muslim minority of Southern Thailand.

Foreign Business Entrepreneurship In Cape Town: How To Start A Business - Stories Of 6 Cape Town Based Immigrants, Aleksandra Bogoevska

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

South Africa has become a shelter for immigrants from all over the world (Wilkinson, 2015). Combined with its internationally recognized economy, it is a tempting location for foreigners to establish a business (“Starting a Business in South Africa as a Foreigner – A Complete Guide”, n.d.). With this in mind, the intent of this study is twofold. First, this project aims at analyzing how foreigners establish businesses in Cape Town. Its objective is to trace the entrepreneurial process from the initial stages to its recent development. Second, it aims at outlining their experiences in Cape Town, thus serve as a …

We Don't Hope That Helps: Satirical Facebook Pages As Counter-Institutional Resistance, Gavin Lawrence Kirkwood

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Through the examination of a satirical Facebook page called Hope that Helps (HTH) this study filled a gap in communication research on humor and resistance within online communities. The qualitative content analysis of the HTH page showcased satire’s role in acts of resistance. Using jokes, impersonation, and ridicule HTH resisted large corporations, government institutions, messages from public figures, and entitled American consumers. HTH also used humor to resist social constructs including Whiteness, transphobia, and American nationalism. Along with page creators, HTH followers were active participants in the humor and resistance acts on the page. HTH served as a space for …