Community-Based Research Commons^™

Impromptu Domesticity: Housing Adaptations By The Marshallese In Springdale, Ar, Kera Lathan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzes the relationship between people and their spatial environment through the lens of cultural practices and experiences. By using theories of cultural identity and activity patterns to compare spatial usage in two differing circumstances, this study will help to better understand the spatial needs of Marshallese living in Springdale, Arkansas.

The analysis uses two in-depth interviews to establish a base of qualitative data to understand the unique needs of this specific population. Through constructs such as spatial fluidity, sharing culture, and ability to adapt to new spatial practices, the two cases are compared to one another in order …

Intersectionality In Queer Activism: A Case Study, Haley Adams

Undergraduate Theses

This paper explores the relationships between intersectionality and queer activism through a case study of the Louisville, Kentucky LGBTQ+ organization The Fairness Campaign. Intersectionality has been increasingly explored by academia, but rarely ventures beyond the “big three” categorical divisions of race, gender, and class; even rarer are studies of the practical application of intersectionality in activism, particularly queer activism. Through analysis of secondary data, I examine the ways in which intersectionality has, consciously or not, played a part in the history of the Fairness Campaign, as well as its role in the future of the organization.

Women And Healthcare In Appalachia: Impeding Circumstance And The Role Of Technology, Ashley Cano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, healthcare access and quality in central and southern Appalachia have trailed the rest of the country. Entrenched poverty and low educational attainment compound healthcare problems. This study examines the healthcare obstacles women encounter in southern and central Appalachia and analyzes how technology use, such as Internet searching and social media affect women’s healthcare decisions. Data were analyzed from four focus groups conducted with women from the region. Results indicate that seeing a physician or not did not influence women’s propensity to search the Internet for health-related information or to seek support through social media sites. Additionally, women reported …

Towards Embracing A Critical Love Ethic In Community Development: A Case Study From Nicaragua, Patrick Barnosky

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research is based on a community sanitation project from Cuajchillo Dos, Nicaragua, in which I served as a field volunteer for Walu International and simultaneously conducted interviews and focus groups with project participants.The goal of this research is to determine to what extent dialogues that took place in this project were based on an ethic of critical love, which is has two primary components: relationality and critical social consciousness. The main findings from this research were that the essential components of dialogue based on a critical love ethic are: listening deeply and sharing openly, building trust and relationships, entering …

Problem Analysis In Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma As A Driver Of Youth And Gang Violence, Laurie Ross Phd, Samantha Arsenault, Sergeant Miguel Lopez

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers …

Sowing Seeds Of Opportunity: The Convergence Of Agriculture And Acculturation For Refugees In Atlanta, Cameron Owens Dunlap

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2015, there were 60 million people displaced by conflict and persecution. With refugees and asylees arriving en masse in foreign receiving countries, it is critical that host nations utilize methods of resettlement and integration that are both beneficial and sensitive to the needs of these vulnerable populations. This study documents an innovative win-win approach to community integration that benefits both hosts and refugees alike. Qualitative data was collected through more than 10 sessions of participant observation on community farms and more than 7 semi-structured interviews with program management and refugees to answer the question, what opportunities for these refugee …

Creating Peace In Our Communities: An Analysis Of Community Reconciliation Techniques, Jessica Shanken

Honors College Theses

Given the rise in efforts to resolve race issues in American communities and ethnic conflicts internationally through open communication techniques, I examine ways that these efforts can be carried out more effectively by analyzing the structure of dialogue centered on race at a large university in a rural area of the Southeast. For that purpose, survey data was collected from students before and after they attended an open forum about race and race relations on their campus to determine the impact of the forum on students' perceptions and attitudes regarding race in their community. In addition, I draw from two …

Is College Making Men Less “Manly?”: The Influence Of Time Spent In A Liberal Arts Environment On Masculinity, Samuel Oakley

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

In Otterbein’s explicitly-named and often-touted diverse and inclusive liberal arts collegiate environment, students are frequently exposed to the institution’s various messages regarding inclusive gender norms via administrative communications, curricular priorities, and the ideological content of extracurricular events. Taken together, institutional histories and contemporary practices demonstrate that Otterbein University purports to offer an environment permeated with an ideology that emphasizes the value of diversity, equality, and inclusion as part of a holistic educational experience.

My study includes three components. First, I administered the Bem (1971) Sex Role inventory (a scale originally designed to measure individual gender performance) to answer the following …

“It’S Not The Pride Parade Model”: Investigating Changes In Queer Activist Practices In Sarajevo After 2008, Matthew Zarenkiewicz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 2008, a group of queer activists in Sarajevo organized the Sarajevo Queer Festival in an attempt to raise the visibility of queer people in Sarajevo, but the event resulted in a violent attack on the queer community. Since 2008, the actors and tactics of activists have changed, moving from the single, more radical, Organization Q, to the emergence of more groups with a more moderate approach. My research poses the question how have the tactics of queer activists in Sarajevo changed since the attack on the Sarajevo Queer Festival and the passage of the 2009 anti-discrimination law. Through semi-structured …

Where Women Stand In Rural Electrification Efforts: An Exploratory Study Within Gujarat, Meital Rosenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since its 2003 village electrification scheme, the state of Gujarat has been acclaimed for providing rural households with 24-hour access and farmers with uninterrupted 8-hour power supply. The Government of India has emphasized goals of providing electricity for all of its citizens yet has been unable to address glaring discrepancies across the country. For those in rural areas, which is approximately 60-70 percent of India’s population, a varying degree of connection exists plagued by frequent outages, transmission losses, unreliable billing practices, and poor infrastructure maintenance. Gujarat has been reported to have overcome these obstacles with its bifurcation of electricity feeders, …

Los Derechos Humanos En Un Contexto Local: La Relación Entre Los Derechos Humanos Y Los Movimientos Mapuche / Human Rights In A Local Context: Relationship Between The Human Rights And The Mapuche Movements., Lucas Richard-Virgene Paulson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La comunidad internacional ha trabajado para plantear una visión amplia de los derechos humanos. Sin embargo, todavía existen críticas de las limitaciones y los sesgos del derecho internacional. Para entender más la utilidad y las limitaciones de los derechos humanos, hay un enfoque creciendo en la percepción e implementación de los derechos humanos en los niveles locales. Para contribuir a este cuerpo de información, este estudio se enfoca en la relación entre el activismo Mapuche—un pueblo indígena en Chile—y las organizaciones locales de los derechos humanos. El estudio plantea que, aunque existe apoyo internacional para las demandas del pueblo Mapuche, …

“La Guerra De Los Centavos” Y Contratos Sociales: Los Impactos Del Desarrollo Del Sistema Intermodal De Transporte Urbano En Loja, Ecuador / "The War Of The Cents" And Social Contracts: The Impacts Of The Development Of The Intermodal Urban Transportation System In Loja, Ecuador, Will Yetvin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El propósito de este estudio fue investigar el Sistema Intermodal de Transporte Urbano (SITU) en la ciudad de Loja, Ecuador. El contenido del estudio se basa en mis observaciones y entrevistas durante mi tiempo trabajando con la Unidad de Transporte del Municipio de Loja, y en fuentes bibliográficas relacionadas con los temas de transporte urbano, transporte sostenible, bus de rápido tránsito y gobiernos descentralizados. Además, utilicé un tesoro de documentos internos del Municipio y el Consorcio. Mi análisis es influenciado por el marco conceptual de desarrollo sostenible.

Este informe es organizado alrededor de tres temas vinculados pero distintos; 1) Un …

When The Hunt Is Over: Culture And Conservation In Kazakh Eagle Falconry, Nolan R. Ebner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The last large scale practice of falconry that uses Golden Eagles takes place in Bayan- Ulgii, Mongolia. Recent media exposure allowed for the development of a tourism industry in the region that culminates in two annual festivals celebrating the cultural heritage. Modern eagle falconry practices have been shown to deviate from traditional hunting and training methods. While Golden Eagles are listed with a regional conservation status of Least Concern by the Mongolian Red List, these new practices place the health of Golden Eagle populations in the region at risk, especially as tourism continues to grow. Furthermore, a changing environmental climate …

Escaping The Concrete Jungle: An Exploration Of Ecotourism Development In Dzongu, North Sikkim, Katrina Kniss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The state of Sikkim in northeastern India is a place imbued with a sense of mystery. It is partially this spirit, as well as its pristine Himalayan landscapes and vibrant cultural diversity, that has established Sikkim as a major tourist destination in the region. In the Northern district of the state, the Dzongu reserve is inhabited by the indigenous Lepcha group, who hold the status of “Most Primitive Tribe”. Over the past decade, however, this primitive tribe has shown their strength in staging large-scale protests and hunger strikes in a movement against mega-hydropower development along the Teesta River. Employing their …

Women In Microfinance And Its Social Effects On The Community: A Case Study In Hue, Vietnam, Madison Spigel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Microfinance, a form of micro lending with no collateral, has been used as a way to finance the poor since the foundation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus in 1983. Since the Doi Moi period, the Vietnamese government has showed great interest in microfinance and has made this loan system available to both its rural and urban citizens through organizations like the Women‟s Union. Through detailed surveys and semi-structured in depth interviews of both women in the Union as well as related parties in Hue, I was able to study how microfinance is used by these women …

Rural Civic Action Project Poster, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

The final project for the Rural Civic Action Project is to create a poster that includes the Community Capital Mapping activity (CCMA; Keith & Kinsey, 2013). The Community Capital Maps provide an opportunity to evaluate the impact of the projects from the participants’ perspective. Fellows should include one map on their poster: the center of the map should be “Engaging in the Rural Civic Action Program. Also included on the poster is a narrative describing the map.

An Analysis Of Opposing Feminist Views Of Sex Work: Is It The Woman’S Choice? In Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Julia Webster

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sex work is an ancient profession that throughout history has been both socially stigmatized and socially sanctioned. Presently, there is conflicting discourse within the feminist movement about whether to support or combat the sex work industry. This study analyzes the current perceptions of sex work in Kolkata, India which is home to South Asia’s largest red-light district Sonagachi. It aims to answer the questions: Is sex work a respectable profession or forced labor? Are women sex workers as a result of choice or force? And are the answers to these questions determined by the sex workers themselves or by NGO …

Local Flavors: A Look At Farm To Table In Samoa, Emily Gove

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With increased access to foreign markets, Samoa has become more dependent on food imports. Most of these products are packaged and preserved, and often lack nutritional benefits. Women in Business, a local organization, has developed a Farm to Table program to encourage buying local. The effectiveness of the program has not yet been determined, and this project seeks to gauge restaurant owners’ satisfaction with local food, as well as the challenges they face when buying local. Surveys were distributed to 53 restaurants in Apia, Samoa, at the consent of the restaurant managers, and eight surveys were conducted with various players …

Building Stronger Communities: The Reciprocity Between University, Student, And Community Through Service-Learning, Jennifer Ellen Goff

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

This three-paper format dissertation explored the impact of service-learning on three key constituents: the university, university students conducting the service, and the community receiving the service. Paper one quantitatively explored the impact of service-learning on university students’ perspective through the use of end of year service-learning course evaluations. Students self-reported their outcomes due to participation as it related to professional skills, communication skills, academic learning, values clarification, citizenship skills, and quality indicators of their service-learning program. Paper one also explored if there was a difference between two types of service, direct (e.g., participate directly with the community) and indirect (e.g., …

Church Attendance And Intrinsic Religiosity Predict A Lower Likelihood Of Hypertension In 18 To 60 Year Olds, Andrea D. Clements, Natalie Cyphers

ETSU Faculty Works

Abstract available through the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.