Sociology of Culture Commons^™

"La Vida Es Un Carnaval": An Exploration Of Cuban Identity And Nostalgia Through Dance/Movement Therapy - A Community Engagement Project, Maria Fernanda Mendez Mendoza

Expressive Therapies Theses

“La Vida Es Un Carnaval” is a community engagement project and thesis that explores how identity and nostalgic resilience show up through dance/movement therapy with Cuban immigrants living in the United States, specifically Massachusetts. This project brought together six Cuban-born participants, ages 26 to 67, each with their own unique migration stories; from the Rafter Balsero Crisis of 1994, to the “Wet-Foot/Dry-Foot” policy, and family reunification. Through a mix of in-person and online sessions, participants explored their experiences using intermodal activities including dance/movement therapy techniques, conversation, journaling, artwork, and music. Themes of cultural pride, “Cubanía” – Cuban-ness, culture shock, and …

Reason And All My Senses: Surveying The Post Enlightenment Frame Of Reason Through Contemporary Philosophy, Cognitive Psychology, And Cognitive Linguistics, Joshua T. Lowe Rev. Dr.

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

This dissertation argues that Christian theology and practice are aided and enriched by a more complete understanding of reason by surveying recent studies and views in theology, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and cognitive linguistics. Since the Enlightenment, Christian theology has assumed widely the Enlightenment model of human reason as ideally acontextual, that is, free from constraints of contexts, and therefore universal, that is, applicable in all contexts. Recent developments from a variety of perspectives challenge this model of rationality. Some challenge the acontextualism of the Enlightenment understanding by showing how it arose from and depends on a context, and that context …

Hybridity In Amazigh Language, Culture, And Literature, Jas Editorial Staff

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

Exploring The Landscape Of Animal Advocacy In Egypt: Insights Into Stray, Wildlife, And Farmed Animal Rights, Yara Moussa, Wasseem Emam

General - Animal Protection

This article examines the landscape of animal advocacy in Egypt, a nascent and growing field in one of Africa’s largest economies and most densely populated countries. It focuses on three types of animal advocacy: 1) stray animal welfare, 2) wildlife conservation, and 3) farmed animal welfare. The paper critically analyses current practices and trends in each of these areas, highlighting the main challenges and opportunities facing the growth of the movement. Our research draws on insights from interviews with active animal welfare organizations, situating their practical experiences, daily operational struggles, as well as instances of success, within Egypt’s wider socio-economic …

"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory, April Chronowski

English

This paper proposes a new literary theory framework based on the zine "an aromantic manifesto" by yingchen and yingtong, as well as the work of Erving Goffman, using theater as a device to examine romantic relationships. Blending English and sociology, I focus each chapter on a different literary period and examine two plays each: early modern (Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), modern (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Djuna Barnes' "To The Dogs"), and contemporary (Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and Margaret Edson's W;t). In tandem with analysis of formal elements---like …

Leading Factors Positively Impacting Teacher Job Satisfaction, Abby M. Smith Ms.

Graduate Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper examined the issue of declining teacher job satisfaction and its role in the growing national teacher shortage. The purpose was to identify the leading factors that positively influenced teacher job satisfaction and to explore how these elements supported retention, enhanced school performance, and improved student learning. This literature review combined 15 peer-reviewed studies from the past 17 years that included diverse international contexts with participants who varied by age, experience, and culture. The sources employed qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, and secondary data analyses to study intrinsic and extrinsic motivators on teacher satisfaction, burnout, and attrition. The findings indicated …

Transforming Criminal Justice Leadership With A Servant-Oriented Trauma-Informed Approach, Janina Cich

Forensic Scholars Today

This paper explores the transformative potential of a criminal justice leadership model by integrating principles of servant leadership, emotional intelligence, and trauma-informed care, focusing on rebuilding community trust, improving officer well-being, and fostering equitable, empathetic public service. This transformative module emphasizes humility, accountability, and emotional awareness to address the deep-rooted effects of trauma on both criminal justice personnel and the communities they serve. Through proactive strategies, such as open communication, cultural competence training, and mental health support, future leaders can cultivate resilient, community-focused agencies prioritizing healing, justice, and human dignity.

Rewriting The Frontier: The Impact Of Collective Memory On The Mythos Of Western Settlement, Kelly E. Kooper

Theses and Dissertations

Using Paul Cohen’s methodological approach in History in Three Keys, this thesis examines the construction and debunking of the myths of manifest destiny, the rugged individual frontiersman, and the “noble savage” Native American in the writing about, experience of, and representation of the settlement American West. First, it analyzes the evolution of the historiography from Frederick Jackson Turner to William Cronon. Then it examines the experiences of four families (the Grices, Grahams, Deems, and McCormicks) who settled in Iowa and Nebraska from 1850 to 1880. Lastly, it surveys various popular cultural celebrations of the West. Through this triple lens, this …

Tapestry Of Culture: The Power Of Storytelling Among Native American Cultures: The Search For History, Culture, And Identity, Maurysha Cuttino

Master's Theses

Storytelling is a centerpiece within cultures to remember the past, find faith, and establish comfort within a community setting. This thesis will explore how storytelling has become a means of entertainment and much more. This paper will focus specifically on how storytelling works for the inner workings of Elders in Native American communities, as well as how multifaceted storytelling can be understood in the importance of its culture and people. Further, we will see how these stories create moral lessons for communities and act as guidance for individuals. We will look at the way storytelling has evolved and changed with …

The Prescribing Of Gender, A Scope On The Societal Ideologies Showcased Within Le Roman De Silence, Derrian Fernandez

Master's Theses

Culture is constantly evolving, its ideologies cementing themselves within our minds, shaping how we as a society guide ourselves through living in such. Social class, religion, gender, all are forms of identity that have a place, and a certain understanding and standing within our culture and society. Through this understanding of ourselves, we are defined, creating multiple forms of distinct expression to help differentiate our place further. A pope is expected to wear a certain attire just as a bride is expected to. The same ideology trickles down, creating demarcations of attire that subsequently ingrain themselves into our culture and …

Capital And Ritual: Unlikely Partners On The Commercial Dancefloor, Laszlo Jentes

Sociology Honors Projects

How do individuals at million-dollar festivals and in basements find connection and care on their respective dancefloors? This research utilizes dance music culture to analyze how commercialization shapes participants’ spiritual experiences, and their responses to drug usage, violence and perceived erosion of shared values. Current literature focuses on either the spiritual or commercial aspects of dance music culture, but has not combined the two. I qualitatively examine a continuum of dance music venues from the mainstream to the underground through interviews and participant observation, finding continuity, rather than contradiction. I find that mainstream events center commercial activity, relying on spectacle …

The Rise Of Fitspiration: An Examination Of Social Media Influence, Body Image Concerns, And Online Harassment, Mary Owen

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The fitspiration movement on social media has raised concerns about potential body image satisfaction issues and body standard internalization. The potential negative effects of body image dissatisfaction include disordered eating, excessive exercise, anxiety, depression, and a risk to online harassment victimization. This dissatisfaction from fitspiration is reinforced by pressures from family and friends. Relying on data from 347 respondents, the present study explores the potential relationship between fitspiration content consumption, body image dissatisfaction, social pressures, and experiences of online harassment. Bivariate correlations and regression analysis were employed to examine the connections between the variables. Results indicated that there was a …

When 'Weird' Means 'Dangerous': Viruses And Firewalls In Affective Polarization, Nathan J. Locke

All Theses

As traditional sources of epistemic authority face declining trust, alternative narratives have gained prominence - often leveraging the emotional and cultural resonance of seemingly simple terms. In the 2024 election cycle, the term “weird” emerged as a potent meme in American political discourse. Using a memetic perspective that incorporates elements of framing theory and Social Judgment Theory, this thesis investigates the use and reaction to “weird” and its role in shaping perception of Donald Trump, his political allies, his followers, and his opposition during and immediately after the 2024 Presidential election. The memetic perspective, which views ideas as units of …

“But Where Are Those Good Old-Fashioned Values?”—The Racial Politics Of Animated Satire In Family Guy, Jordanne Greenidge

Master's Theses

Few animated shows have shaped American pop culture quite like Family Guy. Known for its rapid-fire cutaway gags and irreverent humor, the series has remained a television mainstay since its debut in 1999, despite frequent criticism and even two cancellations. Created by Seth MacFarlane and based on his 1995 student film The Life of Larry, Family Guy has built its reputation on pushing the boundaries of taste, especially when it comes to race, gender, and politics. Though often defended as satire, the show’s use of racial humor raises questions about its true impact: Do its portrayals of Black characters challenge …

Double, Double, Toils And Troubles: Analyzing The “Magical” Relationships Between University Leaders’ Personality Traits And Their Self-Efficacy In Leadership Situations, Fay Ludvine Boudreaux

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This present study investigated the relationship between higher education leaders’ personality traits and their self-efficacy in leadership situations. A total of 151 leaders employed across the nine institutions within the University of Louisiana System completed a survey that prompted them to identify their personal values, traits, and skill sets, as derived from the online Pottermore quiz, the official Harry Potter Hogwarts House sorting instrument. This niche personality metric was chosen to cater to higher education’s evolving landscape, as it welcomes an influx of Millennials into leadership positions. Participants’ responses were eventually recoded to “sort” them into their respective Houses: Gryffindor, …

Perceptions Of Identity And Blame Attribution In Sexual Harassment Scenarios, Avarie Lambert

Honors Theses

Sexual harassment is a widespread issue influenced by societal attitudes that stem from victim blaiming and rape myth acceptance. These perceptions are often shaped by the identities of the parties involved, however there is limited research on how gender and race influence blame attribution. The purpose of this study is to examine how different identities shape public perceptions of victims in sexual harassment scenarios. Through using a nationwide sample and survey experiment, participants were randomly assigned to receive one of eight different hypothetical scenarios that differed by the race and gender of the victim, and the gender of the perpetrator. …

Creed And Variations: Tracing The Divergence Of Christian Traditions In Select Piano Works Of Arvo Pärt, Olivier Messiaen, And J. S. Bach, Rebekah E. Stiles

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Within the classical music universe, the works of J. S. Bach, Olivier Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt stand apart as particularly evocative of the divine. Much has been written on these three men’s integration of faith with musical practice, exploring how their music is not only spiritual in nature but distinctly Christian. But in comparing the three, one encounters deeply rooted distinctions between their religious worldviews, a distinction not only found in their personal testimonies but actually heard in their music. Their compositional languages reflect three traditions: Protestantism (specifically Lutheranism), represented by Bach; Roman Catholicism, represented by Messiaen; and Eastern Orthodoxy, …

Punishing Pregnancy Loss: Miscarriage Criminalization As An Embodied Carceral Practice, Robin O'Hanlon

Publications and Research

The persecution of Brittany Watts, a 34-year-old Black Ohio woman arrested in September 2023 after experiencing a miscarriage, is emblematic of pregnancy loss criminalization as an embodied carceral practice. In the United States, the expansion of “fetal personhood” laws, coupled with a desire to punish imperfect pregnancies, have coalesced to produce policies and practices which actively police and criminalize pregnancy loss. The carceral regime of fetal personhood is further reinforced by medical paternalism and surveillance. I argue that the policies and practices which police pregnancy loss are rooted in a series of carceral logics, which are in turn reinforced by …

The Shift In Children's Dance: From A Culture Of Innocence To A Battlefield Of Hypersexualization, Mary Bawden

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Do Birds Of A Nest Flock Together? A Study Of Home Provinces And Migration Paths Among Filipina Domestic Workers In Hong Kong, Tim F. Liao, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is strong evidence that migration is networked. However, it is unclear whether having the same province of origin can also lead to similar migratory paths. This study investigates the question of whether a shared home province among Filipina migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong is associated with shared or linked migration paths to Hong Kong. Using a unique data source, the 2017 Survey of Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, we employed sequence analysis to identify which specific provinces exhibit stronger linkages between migratory trajectories among migrants from the same provinces and if so, whether certain provincial characteristics matter. …