Zora Neale Hurston was a Black American writer
during the period of the Harlem Renaissance. The
purpose of this study is to show that three of her four
novels form a protracted discussion of a particular
type of freedom which was of especial interest to
Hurston. The study seeks to...
The classroom practices discussed in this thesis come slowly and at a "slant" to feminism through critical reading of texts, a practice that I call a (re)presentation of the silent women in texts. Given our patriarchal western culture, making meaning, and especially making sense, of the role and representations of...
Dedicated to recording, portraying, and indicting
the social inequities that he witnessed in nineteenth
century Victorian England, one of Charles Dickens' many
concerns was the roles assigned to women both in the
public and private spheres.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the
narratives of Amy Dorrit and...
This thesis is the first of three sections in what will be a book-long project of creative nonfiction essays. The book will parallel the author's diary with three other family diaries, spanning four generations. This thesis deals with the first of those diaries, written by Antonio Bonetti's, the author's great-grandfather....
In this thesis, I explore experiences with my identity, looking at the identity people have
seen me as, who I've thought I was, and the identities my mother's and father's different family
backgrounds suggest I should be. I have divided this discussion into three main areas: my
complexion, the first...
These six stories investigate characters who must
begin to understand their own actions, which are often
made in response to authority. In the lives of these
characters, there are schemas which they believe they
fit, certain rules placed on them by society that they
each feel they must obey. It...
This thesis presents a discussion of the main materialistic theories proposed to explain the process of development among the indigenous population of Latin America. Four theoretical approaches are presented and discussed. The first one deals with the social group referred to as peasants. The second one explains the process of...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of women in the
Japanese workplace. Data obtained from in-depth interviews and
questionnaires, shows that the Japanese workplace is in a state of
change moving toward a higher level of opportunity for female workers.
While similar to the circumstances experienced...
The study of the social dimensions of Shakespeare's art is represented by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, C.L. Barber, Robert Weimann, Edward Berry, and Michael Bristol. Their work analyzes the background in Elizabethan social practices and popular dramatic traditions that contribute to the form, structure, and meaning of Shakespeare's comedies....
The goal of this study is to elucidate the similarities between the grammar of oral folk music and oral language grammar through field examples from Grupo Kultura, a group of neo-Latin American musicians in the mid-Willamette Valley area of Oregon. The linguistic analysis of oral folk music explores textual and...
First year college writing classes originated in the United States at Harvard University in 1874. Since then, theorizing such a course has proven a place of contention, as its purposes and subjects have proven difficult to sort and impossible to agree upon. When Harvard first began teaching introductory composition, literature...
The stories here are stories of childhood. To me, they concern the shift between dependence to independence, comfort to instability, which is disastrous for the characters but also a point of awakening. The move from childhood to adulthood puts the characters in a world that is neither made for the...
Ragay Gulf and Burias Pass are among the traditional fishing grounds of the
country being considered by the government for an integrated approach to fishery
management (Smith, et al., 1980; Samson, et al., 1977, World Bank, 1976). The
Department of Marine Fisheries, College of Fisheries, University of the Philippines in...
This thesis is a collection of three short stories and the
beginnings of a novel. A similar thread is woven through all the
stories: in the attempt to know spiritual truth, what it is to be a
woman, and to know themselves, the various protagonists precariously
oscillate between the seemingly...
Gender relations as well as the social situation of Manchu women have long been ignored in studies of the cultural evolution of the Manchu. By setting the discussion of Manchu women in the context of cultural adaptation, this study reintroduces gender and women's problems into the research on the Manchu...
Culture, thought worldview and language have been
discussed for a long time in different fields from various
perspectives. However, the basis of this study is the view
of language as both the product and producer of people just
as people are the producer and product of language. Each
language requires...
As the embodiment of the religiously unsettled Victorian Era in which she lived,
George Eliot sought to discover a system of belief that would allow her to reaffirm and
maintain her feelings of faith and morality. She believed that the subjective nature of
traditional Christianity needed to be replaced with...
The goal of this research project is to determine the fractal nature, if any, which
certain surface water waves exhibit when viewed on a microscopic scale. We make
use of the mathematical formulation of non-viscous fluids describing their physical
properties. Using these expressions and including boundary conditions for free
surfaces...
Emergency departments (ED) provide access to care for large numbers of patients who have nonemergent medical needs. More than half of the patients presenting to the ED at Salem Hospital in Salem, Oregon, were found to be seeking care for nonemergent medical needs. In an effort to provide an alternative...
Shocked porous granular material experiences pressure dependent compaction. D. John
Pastine introduced a model in which the degree of compaction is dependent on the pressure induced
by the shock wave, the shear strength of the material, and the distribution of void sizes. In the
past, the model could only be...
Presenting and synthesizing several paradigms for the teaching of literature in American colleges, I investigate how definitions of reading, readers, texts, interpretations, and knowledge affect student acts of reading and writing. In addition, I draw upon specific examples of text-based, reader-based, and social-cultural based models for the teaching of reading...
These five stories investigate characters who must deal with their unresolved,
emotionally troubling pasts. The characters attempt to journey back to life having
recognized that their isolation, safe and undisturbing as it is, is worse than a life in which
the possibility of joy is mixed with the inevitability of...
This study aims to identify conceptions of the body, as well as "rational" treatment
among primary care practitioners (PCPs) and emergency medicine practitioners (EMPs)
dealing with managed care plans. I conducted ethnographic study throughout 1996, and
interviewed six PCPs and four EMPs. In the course of my interviews, I discovered...
Site ORYA3, the Smith House, is located in Dayton, Oregon. The archaeological project originated because owners of this structure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, applied for a demolition permit. The 1859 home, first occupied by two early Oregon pioneers, Andrew and Sarah Smith, was considered architecturally significant,...
The Anzick Clovis assemblage was first discovered in the late 1960's near Livingston, Montana. More than 100 stone and bone artifacts were found in association with the remains of two subadults proven
to be the earliest radiocarbon-dated human burial in North America. Although human remains are notoriously absent, similar artifact...
The four stories within, "Jim of India," "Shooting the Breeze," "Bridge," and "Point Reyes," are part of a longer work in progress, tentatively titled The Andy Stories. The stories follow Andy, a woman in her 50s, on a voyage across the continent and into herself. Of these, all are written...
Micronesians are in the process of becoming independent nation-states after nearly a
century of colonial rule, including four decades of U.S. administration as the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands. Pressures to attain self-sufficiency have led many of these
island nations to embrace tourism as an economic development strategy. Meanwhile,...
This thesis describes investigations of archaeological materials recovered from Site ORBE2, an early-twentieth century historic site in Corvallis, OR. The archaeological materials were found only after construction workers had excavated trenches underneath the still-standing structure on the site in order to install a new foundation. Over 1500 artifacts were recovered...
The United States Forest Service's Passport In Time program is designed to involve the public in archaeology on National Forest land. Three of the program's goals are: 1) allow archaeologists to conduct research they would not otherwise have the time or the budget to conduct; 2) teach the public about...
This thesis is a collection of six essays with interconnecting elements and themes. Two overriding themes which pervade the collection are the search for spiritual wholeness and the relationships between humans and their environments. The essays document my recent explorations of and experimentations with the "creative nonfiction" genre. have worked...
From 1925 to 1930, Ernest H. Wiegand, a professor of Horticultural Products at Oregon State Agricultural College, developed an improved brining process for cherries. Brined cherries are used in the production of maraschino and glacé cherries, which already had a sizable market in the United States by the 1920s. This...
Violent right-wing groups have emerged in the German youth scene since reunification in 1990. By the early 1990's, many groups of people have had to face racist violence and harassment as a threatening part of everyday life.
With the social, political, economic, demographical and ideological changes which have taken place...
The six stories within, "Still and Silent," "Cold Comfort," "The King of Porn," "Miscuts," "In Between," and "Renovations," are part of a work in progress. They attempt to show how the characters, although they may seem to struggle for independence from the family unit, are in fact strengthening the bonds...
Perhaps more than any other building type, ecclesiastical buildings preserve
a wealth of information about those who erected and used the structures. In
terms of style, form, and function, religious architecture reflects a group's
philosophies about the physical and metaphysical worlds, and the cultural
traditions within their own community. This...
Low-income women in an Oregon city of approximately 35,000 inhabitants have limited access to prenatal care services during their pregnancies. The purpose of this study was to uncover the impacts of several factors on the experiences of twenty-seven health department clients with public health department prenatal care practitioners and with...
This thesis examines the concepts of power and participation and how they are intertwined in the examination of the urban planning systems in Curitiba, Brazil. Power is identified as both the planning system's ability to affect the daily lives of the city's residents and the power of individuals and groups...
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...
This thesis is a collection of essays about Paxton, a
small town in western Nebraska, and an exploration of the
contradictions and complexities found there. It is also a
reflection on the layers of history and connections that
exist not only among families that have lived in these towns
for...
Timber-dependent, rural communities in the Pacific Northwest face dramatic economic, political, and cultural change. New philosophies of forest management, primarily formulated in urban communities, require new approaches to the use and extraction of resources. What are the roles of rural communities that wish to adapt and sustain themselves? Two rural...
In Culture and Imperialism, Said illustrates that we have no "autonomous cultural forms," but rather "impure" ones that are the products of historically "discrepant experiences." American culture has an interesting relationship with the history of imperialism. The Europeans that settled the U.S. imported slave labor to assist in the growth...
This work was performed on Trillium albidum Freeman (Liliaceae), to
clarify the pattern of morphological variation between the small-flowered
populations at the northern limit of its range ( T. parviflorum Soukup) and the
larger-flowered populations from southern Oregon and northern California. It was
hypothesized that only a single species of...
In this paper I focus on the process of formulating an ethnic identity in the United States for individuals of mixed-ethnicity. My main question explores the complexities an individual with parents of separate and distinct ethnic heritages faces when constructing an ethnic identity in our society. American society is reaching...
This thesis is an exploratory and descriptive study of the relationship between a US
military base and Kin Town, Okinawa, Japan, presented in the form of ethnography.
Guided by James Scott's theory of "weapons of the weak," it explores the relationship
between the two in terms of how the townspeople...
My primary purpose in this thesis is to continue the refocused attention given to American "proletarian" fiction of the 1930's. Because of their politics and supposed artistic inferiority, many of these works have been marginalized by American literary critics. However, many contemporary scholars are reconsidering this genre and devoting more...
Remnants of railroad logging camps, and their associated features, are perhaps some of the most common archaeological resources found on public lands in the Pacific Northwest. Many camps have already been located, their cultural materials inventoried, and networks of logging railroad grades mapped. Yet, despite these efforts, little can be...
The success of NIKE, Inc. is deemed miracle by professionals on both Wall
Street and Madison Avenue. Research done in the past tends to credit the growth
of NIKE, Inc. to its marketing strategies. By placing the achievement of the
company in the postmodern context, this study analyzes the cultural...
In his works, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses
(1922), James Joyce demonstrates what he perceives to be the paralyzing effects of
those institutionalized religions that sit at the center of cultures. Drawing on Michel
Foucault's analysis of institutional dressage as well as his...
The field of composition studies has concerned itself with the way in which people learn to write and the role schooling plays in writing development. Recently a trend has developed within the field towards exploring writing development outside of the classroom, termed the extracurriculum. Much of the scholarship thus far...
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...
The six stories in this collection center around an extended Jewish family in the New York Metropolitan area and the curse its members relentlessly wish upon themselves. The protagonist in four of the six stories is Daniel Brickman, younger brother in a very ordinary and chaotic household in suburban New...
The study of the question of why Shakespeare's Hamlet delays killing
Claudius in revenge for his father's murder is examined in light of the major
critical theories from neo-classical to modern scholarship. An expanded
treatment of the works of Fredson Bowers, Eleanor Prosser, Bertram Joseph,
and Roland Frye, is provided...
Traditional readings of George Bernard Shaw's texts suggest that he is not a pure
Marxist socialist because of the spiritual and nationalist aspects of his vision. This thesis
attempts to confront Shaw's politics in order to demonstrate that he indeed offers a viable
socialist program. Overlaying his socialism with Louis...
This thesis comprises a collection of six short stories written and developed in
the Creative Writing program at Oregon State University and particularly in fiction
workshops with Dr. Tracy Daugherty and Marjorie Sandor. These stories explore the
human condition, and human connections, in contemporary society. The characters
here are ordinary...
This collection consists of autobiographical essays which center around my father,
my first husband, and my backyard. All of the pieces are recollections, and most occur
either from my study inside the house, or from the deck outside, looking at the yard. The
Preface is the story of how I...
Fort Hoskins, located in Kings Valley, Oregon, was a U.S. Army post
established in 1856 and decommissioned in April 1865. In 1992, the site of Fort
Hoskins went into the public trust as a Benton County Park. Developing an
interpretive center for the park will necessitate ground disturbing activities on...
The eighteenth-century female of sensibility was characterized by delicate nerves that allowed her to feel her surroundings and enabled her to choose virtue over vice more consistently than males. While females were considered virtuous, their "innate" delicacy or weakness became their dominant trait and the true focus of male admiration....
Eva Nightingale, an original screenplay, is a retelling of the Garden of Eden myth set in modern times and seen from Eve's point of view. The script centers on life after Eden, life after trespass and loss, when Eva (like Eve before her) must choose between despair and hope, self-destruction...
In the early 1990s, a cutback in harvestable timber led to economic stress among the families and communities of Oregon's Santiam Canyon. This ethnographic study uses symbolic anthropology and cultural ecology to examine the changing relationships among the timber industry, timber communities, and gender roles. Timber-dependent economies have always struggled...
This is a collection of eight short stories, all of which deal on some level with
alienation and the struggle to find meaning in one's life. Although most of the stories deal
with issues related to women or feature female protagonists, I did not set out to create a
political...
Fort Hoskins, located in Kings Valley, Oregon, was established in 1856 as one of
three forts to monitor the newly created Coastal Indian Reservation. Companies U and F
of the 4th Infantry were assigned to Fort Hoskins until 1861 when they were transferred
to the East with the outbreak of...
The purpose of this study was to develop and test a data
collection instrument that would facilitate description of the clothing
of Oregon school boys 1867-1910. In addition, the researcher attempted
to describe Oregon school-aged boys' clothing and determine if fashion
changes occurred in Oregon boys' clothing. The researcher also...
Mukti Ashram is a rehabilitation center in north India that works with ex-child laborer boys. Fieldwork completed at the ashram in 1997-98 centered around the issue of the organization's attempt to enact social change through the engineering of community within the ashram's walls. Several fundamental processes that contribute to this...
This thesis outlines dominant ideologies and practices that affect women's authority in the urban social milieu of north India. Theories that consider the causes of social stratification by gender as well as social movement patterns are useful for understanding the durability of gender roles. The utility of these theories for...
Nathaniel Hawthorne lived and wrote in an age of reform efforts, and the progressive movement with which he was most familiar was Transcendentalism. However, he was not sympathetic with Emerson's idealism, a sentiment which comes out in his fiction in way of critique. Throughout Hawthorne's work there is an emphasis...
The creative writing project Circles in the Sand began as a collection of
interrelated short stories but is now the three opening chapters of a novel, a chapter and an
early draft of what was originally the ending to a novella, and one short story. The
landscape is the upper...
Chazzonos, as presented here for my thesis, represents three chapters
of what will be a novel of the same name. Chazzonos is about Hal
Perlmutter, a cantor, who at the outset of the novel, is resigning his position
of twenty years. The novel progresses as Hal decides where he will...
This thesis seeks to explain how Lord George Gordon
Byron achieves catharsis through the writing of his truth
in Don Juan. In the poem the narrator expresses Byron's
innermost emotion while at the same time the protagonist,
Juan, relates to readers on a more conscious level. The
ability that Byron...
This thesis examines the ways in which cyberpunk science fiction novels and
short stories reflect our cultural relation with technology, a series of
relationships predicated on the way that corporate control of knowledge
industries increased during the 1980s. The document begins by locating the
means of corporate control in the...
The Buraku people have been segregated, oppressed, and discriminated against throughout Japanese history. The Japanese can dismiss the Buraku issue because of assimilation theories, the belief in homogeneity, and passive attitudes by the Buraku people. The Buraku Liberation League (BLL), which has fought for equal rights on behalf of the...
Reflecting an effort to broaden the scope of research concerning Mexican
migration, this thesis describes the experiences of monolingual Spanish-speaking
Mexican migrants in Corvallis, Oregon and explores the roles of language and culture
in shaping these migrants' experiences. Data were collected through intensive
participant observation and semi-structured interviews.
Migrants arrive...
Both development and post-structuralist anthropologists have
critiqued development. Development anthropologists are concerned
that development does not take adequate account of the social and
cultural factors of developing nations, while post structuralists question
the ontology of development and assert that domination over
developing nations is inherent in the concept of development....
The alien abduction phenomenon has garnered considerable media attention in the last fifteen years, including many representations in books, film, and television. An overview of significant abduction literature is presented. Contrasts and comparisons are noted between popular written accounts and both the visual representations they engender and reports outside the...
Much-needed research on Thai adolescents (age 15-19), the fastest growing group
of AIDS victims in Thailand, this study differentiates risk behavior among classes, unlike most AIDS research in Thai society, and focuses on how gender and economic factors among adolescents influence their risk-behavior patterns leading to the contraction of HIV/AIDS....
"This Long Disease, My Life": Alexander Pope and the
Sciences by Marjorie Nicolson and G.S. Rousseau has been the
standard work on Alexander Pope and Newtonian science ever
since it was published in 1968. Literary scholars and
biographers continue to be swayed by its influence.
Unfortunately, the work they so...
Within literacy and composition studies, writing, as a
social act, is believed by many to have the potential to effect
change in and transform situations of injustice. Community literacy,
as an emergent practice within composition studies, embraces
and stretches this notion of linking literacy to social
change. Community literacy also...
The two literary touchstones of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Willa Cather examined in this thesis anchored a larger discussion of the discourse about gender and sexuality during the First and Second Waves of feminism in America. "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Gilman deconstructed the notion of "femininity" manifested at the turn...
Past experiences have relevant truths for the present. An uncommon work
and living situation from this writer's undergraduate days shows how prejudice and
stereotype can be subtly arranged, and participated in, by the nature of his
surroundings. This thesis explores, through the combination of related past events
with an interspersed...
Traditional interpretations of James Joyce's Dubliners have often focused on the pervasive "paralysis" of the city, covered in the stories' range of "childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life." However, these approaches have limited their focus on the women in the stories, often spotlighting the male characters--and the author--through a Freudian...
Recent conflicts in America concerning the environment (the harvesting of old growth timber in the Pacific Northwest, or the proposed opening of public lands in southern Utah to mining interests, for instance) have precipitated a personal examination of "historical others" (Jensen 64), individuals that possess very different sensibilities from a...
In their respective novels, The House Behind the Cedars (1900) and
Passing (1929), both Charles Chesnutt and Nella Larsen utilize racial
passing, the process of a mixed-race individual living as "white," to
explore the relations between black and white people during early-twentieth century America. This thesis specifically argues that
Chesnutt...