The act of accessing food is embedded within various systems of power. This dissertation problematizes our understanding of food access for vulnerable populations by making explicit ways that social constructions, including power, affect food access for vulnerable populations. This is accomplished across three manuscripts. The first manuscript presents textual analysis...
The Linn and Benton County Gleaner network has helped the low-income families of urban and rural Oregon reclaim moral, social and cultural capital that is lost in the act of being poor in America. Rather than participating solely in government safety nets, these people reject “hand-outs” in favor of exchanging...
The products, processes, and tools of school feeding programs have been examined from multiple perspectives and disciplines in an attempt to improve child nutrition outcomes, to support local and national agriculture, and increase sustainability practices. There is little qualitative research on the role, needs, and experiences of school food service...
This research analyzes the relations of ethnic refugee communities and particularly their
businesses to gentrification and community vitality in a neighborhood in Portland,
Oregon. The data indicates that gentrification is not a linear process of displacement of
African Americans by Whites seeking affordable housing and new frontiers, but rather is...
Projected to reach one million people next year, international students in the United States are undergoing a transformative educational migration. Moving away from the existing study abroad paradigm is the first step to more accurately understand the lived experience of an educational migrant. Discovering the perceptions of what value an...
Limited research has analyzed how the values espoused by Western alternative food systems, such as taste and territoriality, are adopted and refashioned in post-socialist societies. Muscovites now echo the global quality turn that reconnects consumers to their food sources. This research qualitatively explores the perspectives of the cosmopolitan consumers of...
Violence within marital dyads is a problem with deep
historic roots in American culture. Although the family
is idealized as a safe and loving haven from a cruel
world, this ideal is often not achieved by many couples.
This study develops an integrated theoretical perspective
that combines feminist theory and...
There are more Japanese people coming to the United States than ever before.
Increasing numbers of problems and conflicts are occurring between the Americans
(hosts) and Japanese (guests). Many scholars have stated that there is a distinct
difference of communication patterns between Americans and Japanese. The Asia
University American Program...
The problems of Russian speaking refugees from the
Ukraine region of the former Soviet Union are the basis for
ethnographic inquiry and the delineation of the role of
voluntary agencies who assist their resettlement in Portland,
Oregon.
Interpretive methods are the foundation for an analysis
of Ukrainians' perceptions of problems...
Enrollments of international students have increased dramatically in
the last several decades. The delivery of health care to these students has
become a topic of study for college health care providers and medical
researchers across the country. The purpose of this study was to explore how
Asian international students cope...