In the study of rebuilding and recovery after natural disasters in the United States, little attention is paid to understanding how and why people rebuild following recurring, small-scale events, like wildfire. Hazard and risk literature, instead, is focused on understanding how larger communities with greater resources, economics, and social capital,...
In recent years, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) have become one of the fastest-growing racial groups within the United States, increasing by 40% between 2000 and 2010, and expected to nearly double in population size by 2030 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012; Empowering Pacific Islander Communities & Asian Americans Advancing...
The environmental movement needs people from communities of color and the differing perspectives they provide. Latinas/os are one of the largest communities of color in the US, and their numbers continue to grow. However, mainstream environmental organizations have failed to engage this community in authentic ways. The lack of meaningful...
Having excess weight carries a negative social stigma in the U.S. Previous research has shown that experiencing stigma has negative physical and mental health consequences. Few studies have examined how experiencing weight stigma might act as a barrier to engaging in healthy behaviors among older adults. The purpose of this...
How do organizational members socially construct the shared meaning of a mandated change in the external environment? The opportunity to address this question presented itself when President Barack Obama set forth a goal for American community colleges to increase the number of students completing certificates and degrees by 5 million...
Drug policies in the United States are rapidly changing at the state and national level paralleling a shift in drug culture from a societal perspective. This dissertation addresses current public health policy topics with a focus on three recent drug policies. As of 2015, medical cannabis is legal in 23...
Scholars promote the ability of visual imagery to have a number of political campaigning benefits such as influencing opinions and attitudes and encouraging vibrant, striving democracy while improving the quality of public knowledge and opinion. However, previous research on this subject has failed to identify how presidential candidates display their...
Navigating the transition to adulthood is fraught with challenges, especially for those coming of age during an economic crisis. Individuals often rely on support from existing social networks, and establish social capital through deepening and expanding social ties, as they establish footholds in roles marking adulthood. Yet investing in social...
The Islamic faith is a growing global religion; the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2011) estimates that globally the Muslim population is 1.6 billion and will increase to 2.2 billion by 2030. As the population of Muslims grows the apparent misunderstandings of the faith among Western societies are...
The shoe repair transaction, as it occurs in the 5000 or so remaining shoe repair shops in the United States, is currently unexamined in academic literature for the significance it holds for either shoe repairers or their customers. Making use of both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, this...