The Mixteco primarily reside in the Mexican State of Oaxaca in Southwestern Mexico. They have been arriving in larger numbers then ever before to this part of the North American continent in the last twenty years.Their experience is composed of different dynamics compared to those of their mainstream Mexican counterpart....
The image of Native Americans in the United States has changed through
the passage of time. Part of this change is directly related to the representation of
their cultures in a museum setting and the inception of cultural resource laws that
govern them. This research looks at four museums, two...
The “fat-hunger paradox” is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States in which people of low socioeconomic status are disproportionately overweight or obese, and yet frequently lack access to adequate food and nutrition. Research indicates additional disparities in the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst most racial and ethnic...
This thesis examines the nature of publishing as a political endeavor through a detailed investigation of the feminist publishing movement in the U.S. since the 1970s. Feminist publishers emerged from an activist context of feminist struggle, and they evolved within changing political and social climates, facing ideological and economic challenges...
Throughout society, many believe women are not succeeding professionally because of the institutional barriers created by men in the American workforce. However, women may be more competitive with other women than with men, especially when limited job positions are the goal. Competitiveness among women can be explained by a phenomenon...
This research addresses the perception of leadership attributes in light of evaluator and target gender. It specifically investigates whether there is a difference in language usage when the evaluator is female versus when the evaluator is male. Two studies were conducted. A pre-test used instrumental development drawing from studies conducted...
Although the timber industry was the major economic force in the lives of several generations of Oregon families, very little archaeological investigation has been done on the dozens of abandoned logging camps that are scattered throughout the forests of the Pacific Northwest. This project focuses on Camp 1, a 1920s...
What historical and political reality is reflected in the novels Gringo viejo and La frontera de cristal? What is revealed when the characters, plot, and setting of the novels are analyzed against research of the context of U.S.-Mexico relations? We begin to explore these questions by studying three periods crucial...
Recent scientific studies show strong correlations between oral and systemic disease, creating a crucial need for increased collaboration between the medical and dental professions. Interdisciplinary collaboration between medical and dental providers is emerging as a critical component to effective patient care. The role of the dental hygienist in interdisciplinary collaboration...
Servers in a small college town were asked to take part in an interview to assess perceptions of their use of nonverbal communication, how they believe nonverbal communication affects tipping behavior, and whether or not they received formal training in nonverbal communication tactics. The study also links nonverbal communication with...
The purpose of this study is to examine the rhetorical efforts of President George W. Bush in defending his administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Specifically, the study attempts to determine the president's underlying motives when he defended the National Security Agency in a December 2005 radio address by applying Kenneth Burke's...
This project examines the landscape of the farming community of Beagle, Oregon
prior to and during the Second World War and the effect on it due to
the construction of Camp White, a World War II training facility. The Beagle
landscape is examined through the prism of current theory that...
Task-set inhibition has been proposed to be an important mechanism for cognitive control in task switching. Its existence is supported largely by the observation of the N-2 repetition cost (e.g., A-B-A is slower than C-B-A). Many studies have reported an N-2 repetition cost, but several have not. Because of the...
Passage through The Vagina Monologues: A College Anti-Violence Rite examines the ways in which the audience at Oregon State University (OSU) responds to the annual production of the play in connection with the international college campaign to raise awareness about violence against women and to raise money for community organizations...
In this paper, my aim is to call attention to the meanings women attach to their
birthing experiences using the symbolic interaction perspective in conjunction with a
feminist lens. I argue that the obstetrical model of childbirth defines the course of the
relationship between the laboring woman and attendant, limiting...
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the top ten best-selling children's picture books of 2006 reveals that these books contain elements of systematic privilege and oppression. Dominant group members are numerically overrepresented in the sample. Major emergent themes are the normalization of racism and white privilege, the stereotypical portrayal of the...
The American philosopher and literary critic Kenneth Burke was an "ideologist" (although he never called himself this, and added to that, he spent most of his life avoiding the Marxist term of ideology to describe human "systems" of ideas). Burke instead used the terms "orientation," "rationalization," "perspective." "critical perspective," "way...
In 1995, Oregon introduced the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds (formerly the Oregon Coho Salmon Recovery Initiative; OCRSI), a statewide cooperative effort between government and citizens. The Oregon Plan promotes voluntary and locally determined salmonid and watershed restoration initiatives. Watershed councils - groups comprised of citizens, federal and state...
During the early 19th Century, the fur trade brought many Iroquois to the Pacific Northwest as working primarily as voyageurs for the North West Company. When the North West Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, the Iroquois employees merged as well. After retirement, some settled in the Willamette Valley...
The purpose of this study is to educate adults and later generations on the experience of women of the Navy who worked behind the scenes in World War II and helped win the war. The efforts and experiences of these pioneering women will be lost at a rate of 1,700...
Main Street USA in Southern California’s Disneyland theme park is often described as nostalgic. However, previous research on this subject has failed to identify what elements actually make Main Street USA nostalgic as well as determine why Disney uses this nostalgia to influence park guests. In order to respond to...
This study links together two very complicated, but very important subjects: media bias and metaphor. More specifically, this study investigates whether or not examining a media outlet's use of metaphor is an effective methodology for investigating media bias. Using cluster analysis, I identified the source metaphors most commonly used on...
A cultural landscape analysis of two historic cemeteries in St. Paul, Oregon demonstrates that the residents of this early community were unknowingly using grave markers to express their worldview and the identities that they felt were most important. Because of the historical and cultural development of this community as the...
White women’s experiences with major institutions, the church included, often are generalized to other women’s experiences, much like how the experience of men in often represented as the experience of all humankind. In 2001 Elaine Howard Ecklund studied white lay women in the Catholic Church and explored two questions: What...
The purpose of this study is to analyze the rhetoric provided by New Orleans
Saints fans and residents from 2004 to 2007. During this time frame there are two
particularly significant events that influence a rhetorical change within the community
and a shift in the perception of the New Orleans...
Employees from two different organizations, a public university and a hospital in
Oregon, were asked to take part in an interview to assess their perceptions of how
race is discussed in their workplace, if racial humor is used in their workplace, if
this humor offers an opportunity to discuss race...
Individuals in and around a small college town were asked to take part in an interview to study their perception of wilderness activities depicted on television and other forms of media and the potential impact of these depictions on an individual's willingness to participate in wilderness activities. This study linked...
This study documents the occurrence of stereotypical representations of
gender, race, and other characteristics in individuals that appear in advertisements in
the prestigious academic journal Science. It repeats and expands upon a study
conducted by Mary Barbercheck (2001) that analyzed advertisements in Science
between 1995 and 1997. In this study,...
This thesis deals with the archaeological investigations of an 1897-1898 gold rush
structure in the town of Dyea, Alaska. Little is known about this structure (Feature 96) from the historical records. A three year project was conducted to investigate Feature 96 in order to determine the function of the structure,...
MySpace is a social network phenomenon with over 100 million profiles
and a strong presence in over 24 countries. As digital media become more
commonplace, social networks are becoming sites where women create and
manage relationships and identities. This thesis is a study of how women
ages 18-22 are constructing...
In an era of human-induced climate change, there is increasing interest in encouraging people to reduce their carbon dioxide (carbon) emissions by adopting low-carbon behaviors, or behaviors that reduce a person’s use of fossil fuels. I designed the Campus Carbon Challenge as a research and outreach project to gain a...
Prehistoric rock art has intrigued and fascinated researchers from around the world for nearly 300 years. Having once been embraced for its cultural and scientific
uniqueness, the study of prehistoric rock art showed promise in being able to open new
doors of understanding, above and beyond the written record. In...
Caribbean women authors, in an attempt to reclaim their voices lost to patriarchy and colonialism, are creating a new literary tradition by expanding the boundaries of the Bildungsroman genre. Many have challenged the conservative male Bildungsroman's deeply entrenched gender bias where female transcendence was impossible due to cultural prescriptions that...
This paper discusses research concerning redware vessel sherds found in an archaeological excavation at Oregon's historic Champoeg State Park, and comparative artifacts from four known Oregon and Washington late nineteenth pottery production sites. Visual and Instrumental Nuclear Activation Analysis comparison studies were conducted on samples from each site. The New...
The Forest Homestead Act of 1906 precipitated one of the final rushes for free
land in American history. A nascent land management agency, the USDA Forest
Service, created a systematized process for the review and documentation of purported
forest homestead claims. One hundred years later, the forest-homestead examination
files of...
This study examines the critical pedagogy utilized by the Center for Global
Education's study abroad program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The Center for
Global Education (Centro de Educación Mundial en America Latina-
CEMAL) facilitates two semester long study abroad programs per year as
well as a variety of short term programs,...
This thesis seeks to explore how visual cues in the new environment affect Chinese international students studying abroad in the United States. Through open-ended interviews, Photovoice, and focus groups, Chinese international students shared their perspectives on their orientation, residence, campus places, color association, and on-campus place preferences. During the study,...
Within this thesis, I posit that poetry, rather than philosophical argument, is a more effective means of expressing and understanding the nature of mystical experiences. William James’ analysis of mysticism inspires the theoretical approach utilized in this thesis. An analysis of the unique qualities of poetic language within mystical discourse...
In recent decades, there has been a tremendous change in the college student
experience. In many ways this change has been driven by developments in
technology, which have in turn changed the way students conduct research,
socialize, and recreate. This thesis seeks to gain an understanding as to how
Internet...
Effective pedagogy to teach students about anti-oppression education is valuable
to educators and campuses in the United States. One means to introduce oppression to
students is to discuss it in its ethical perspectives. This allows students to bring
oppression to an individual level and the focus is on values with...
How do digital games convey meaning? Academic studies of video games seem concerned
with creating discipline-specific new methodologies for examining the medium. From the
standpoint of the rhetorical critic, however, new forms of communication can still be
examined with traditional techniques. This paper analyzes the 2001 video game Tropico
using...
The Disney Company is an inescapable force in American life that is often detached from the stigma of big business and instead viewed as something particularly valuable, the United States’ foremost storyteller. In addition to the stories that the Disney Company
produces through its animated and live-action productions, there is...
This study seeks to show how a member of an empowered group is able to argue
on behalf of a disempowered group. Other theorists in the field of other-directed
protest have claimed that these protestors have a negative effect on the
disempowered group and only serve to raise their own...
This exploratory study looks at communication perspectives and applies them to
the transcript of USAir Flight 427, a flight that crashed while attempting to land.
Researchers calculate that 60% to 80% of the accidents can he traced to pilot error.
Many of these errors occur through a single communication event...
The Sandinistas embarked on a unique and controversial path of democratization between 1979 and 1990 that focused first on expanding human development due to Nicaragua's historical underdevelopment before holding elections. This differs widely from methods advocated still today that emphasize expanding civil and political liberties and holding elections. The purpose...
Educators and other individuals within the long term care continuum along
with current gerontological researchers call for consideration of quality of life
factors related to aging. Optimal aging applies to physical health, as well as
cognitive and socio-emotional health. Each is imperative to a quality of life,
specifically in long...
This study is based on two in-depth case study interviews with two Iranian women
trapped in violent/abusive marriages. Using a feminist methodology in combination with
a systems perspective, several themes emerge from the data gathered in the interviews.
The study provides an overview of Iranian family law, the role of...
In The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria argues that there has emerged "too
much democracy" and too little liberty in the world today, and suggests this trend may
lead to a crisis of belief in democracy. However, what Zakaria calls "democratization" in
many cases does not lead to democracy.
The...
In recent times, public policy debates in the United States have been very contentious and dysfunctional. To help improve this situation, a multi-discipline research effort was conducted to look at "solution papers" as a form of public participation. Specifically, the roles of objectivity and mutual respectfulness were under consideration. Foundational...
This thesis will look at Paul Jensen while he was an education professor at Western Oregon State College in Monmouth, Oregon, and his role in Alaska Native education while working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Dr. Jensen's work coincided with the last twenty-five years of Bureau of Indian Affairs...