This project discusses the topic of personal names and the cultures of different
peoples and their particularities, specifically in Vietnam and Denmark. The first part of
this paper gives a brief history of naming traditions (mostly relating to Western European
traditions). The second part of the paper compares two families...
This thesis examines the food insecurity experiences of student clients of the Oregon State University Emergency Food Pantry. Utilizing semi‐structured interviews and participant observation at the food pantry, this study investigated who is using the food pantry, the forms of food insecurity they experience, how they cope with it, and...
This is an IRB-exempt thesis exploring place relationship in the valley of Lake Creek, Oregon, at Triangle Lake. An interdisciplinary ethnography of place, it involves a synthesis of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic literature; an analysis of nineteenth-century Coos, Alseya (Alsea), and Kalapuya myth-texts from Native oral tradition; a history of...
What does comida rica mean? In this thesis, I explore the meanings of comida rica, sana, and de nuestra tierra through the discourses, practices, and kitchen geographies in six urban, highland households in the Ecuadorean Andes. This research, as part of a larger investigation carried out by a team of...
Changing demographics in Oregon, accompanied by a rising Latino population, serve to dispel myths that we live in homogeneous, monolithic communities. Migration studies indicate migration is reshaping communities, contributing to ethnic diversity thus challenging our notion of identity and culture. Through the medium of oral histories and ethnography, this study...
Several popular cultural movements emphasizing indigenous spirituality have arisen in the United States and Europe within the past thirty years. Spiritual discourses attributed to Native Americans, among other groups, are borrowed by Euro-Americans in search of alternatives to dominant ideologies. In such a circumstance, Native Americans become part of a...
This thesis is an IRB-exempt oral history focused on the non-profit Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center (CMLC) in Corvallis, Oregon. The CMLC, formerly on 9th Street, was known to many community members as the Yellow House. The Yellow House was a dedicated community-based space where people of all cultures could come...
Mainstream local food systems focus on environmental and individual health, but labor is out of sight and out of mind. We begin with a story that introduces the immigrant in the room, the locavore’s blind spots, and the need to move beyond mainstream environmentalism and embrace social justice. In the...