This thesis examines the experiences of international Latin American graduate students when taking on the role of graduate assistants while completing their academic program. Using phenomenology, a qualitative research approach, and relying on two main theories, Challenge and Support by Sanford (1966) and the Community Cultural Wealth Model, this study...
The impact that Andrew Tate has on his audience paired with the platform he holds has made Andrew Tate one of the most infamous names related to misogyny and “male empowerment”. His ability to connect to his audience and convince them of the superiority of his beliefs allows him to...
The law commonly referred to as Title IX, which was passed in 1972, called for an end to sex-based discrimination in educational and federally-funded settings. Before long, it became particularly associated with the quest for equality for women’s sports. As Title IX was a major catalyst in advancing and even...
This study is an ethnographic investigation of residential turnover, organizational memory, and the persistence of Lost Valley, an Oregon ecovillage founded in 1989. Literature on organizational turnover, memory, and persistence is reviewed and integrated with scholarship on intentional communities and ecovillages, generating a theoretical framework for data collection and analysis....
'Search engine for a book library section' was developed for the Philosophy department. This Search Engine is a user interface application used for the purpose of searching for words or phrases as the need may be from a directory of books in a section of the Philosophy department library. The...
American first ladies have long used the media to promote their image. Michelle Obama, the first lady of the @FLOTUS Twitter account, used this government controlled platform to communicate, campaign and bring attention to important White House events. Using Chang Wan Woo et al. rhetorical purpose(s), this study conducts a...
The virtual reality (VR) experience War Remains created by Dan Carlin claims that it is an immersive memory in attempt to give its audience the “tiniest taste of” what-it-was-like to experience a WWI battle (Carlin, 2020). This claim aligns with the growing belief that VR can be the ultimate empathy...
Institutions of higher education are working to be more inclusive of underrepresented groups, including first-generation and low-income college students. Broadly, data show a significant population of diverse students are now entering higher education, but completion rates are comparatively lower than entry rates. To combat this, we need to evaluate ways...
The purpose of this paper was to discuss the theory of erotic capital proposed by Catherine Hakim and how this theory affects online advertising done by sex workers. Through analyzing 29 different pages relating to the commercial sex industry, I observed how sexual capital is utilized in marketing strategies and...
An often overlooked student population within higher education, former foster youth, is a population that needs support. Students who were formerly a part of the foster care system who have since aged out, are left to navigate higher education institutions on their own. College support services tailored for the needs...
Biochar is a highly porous, carbon-rich residue produced by thermochemical conversion (pyrolysis) of plant biomass and carbonaceous organic materials under oxygen-controlled conditions. Chars produced by this process tend to have high ion-exchange capacities and, when added to soil, increase retention of water and nutrients and improve soil aggregation, porosity, and...
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted life for populations all over the world. One population that has been uniquely impacted by the pandemic is the student-athlete population. Over the last two years, universities took safety precautions by first sending students home and moving teaching and learning to a remote format and...
Much of our knowledge about transgender (folks who identify as not cisgender) lives in universities centers around barriers experienced, feelings of exclusion, and being victims of harassment and violence. This thesis describes conversations regarding captured gender euphoric moments from five students at a large university. They came together through a...
This creative writing project employs the use of ethnographic fiction to position the voices of newly mothering women within the literature surrounding gender inequality, access to social services, and pregnancy while being situated during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The voices of four women are brought to life within a broader...
Each year, numerous people attend cultural events in the United States, be they large celebrations such as New Orleans’ Mardi Gras or one of many numerous Cinco de Mayo festivals throughout the country or smaller, more specialized events. Many times, the cultural aspects take a backseat to profits, which leads...
The choice of what to eat is political, and food systems shape and are shaped by political and economic power. During the last several hundred years, agricultural and food power has been consolidated to an unprecedented degree, and this consolidation continues today. This paper will describe this process as “Governing...
The primary goal of this study is to illuminate the voices of LGBTQ+ individuals in Oregon and Texas who were victims of workplace discrimination due to their LGBTQ+ status in order to highlight the necessity of LGBTQ+ inclusive employment discrimination legislation. This study used qualitative research methods to gather data...
This thesis covers the facing problem of maternity rights for professional female athletes. By examining the consciousness raising strategies of two professional track athletes, the critical consciousness theory was used to understand the importance of anti-oppressive thinking and anti-oppressive action. Major findings have shown that consciousness raising is a practical...
The purpose of this thesis is to argue that LeBron James’ expressions of activism are, in many ways, perceived as insincere, hypocritical or disingenuous to his followers on the social media platform Twitter. Using the theoretical framework of Affect Theory and Plutchik’s wheel of emotions, a close reading was conducted...
Mental health among student athletes has gotten much more attention in the world of sport today. However, there has been a lack of research focusing on how the socioeconomic backgrounds of Division 1 student athletes can play a role in their mental health and their desire to seek out help...
This study explores an underground museum located in Pendleton, Oregon. Using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis, I identify the ways Whiteness and Chinese as “the Other” are visually and verbally depicted. This study uses a qualitative approach to identify the ways both groups are presented on the tour. The...
This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of American newspaper coverage of Hồ Chí Minh from 1954-1969. My method is the Pragmatic Attitude, created by Elizabeth and Jay Mechling. My foci of study are the polls and letters to the editor from this same period. These foci of study are used...
The number of Latinx students enrolling in higher education has grown significantly over the past two decades (Jabbar et al., 2019). This study explores a portion of that population by focusing on the experiences of Latinx transfer students at a 4-year institution within the Pacific Northwest of the United States....
Cultivated plants are often living artifacts that can aid in evaluation of historic or cultural landscapes. However, a working definition for “culturally significant plant” is currently lacking in the guidance literature for the cultural resource management practitioners. Based on a review of the literature on cultivated plants as indicators of...
On April 28, 1981, President Reagan delivered his address on the Program for Economic Recovery before a joint session of Congress and the nation. It was the first major public appearance and speech of Reagan following his survival of the assassination attempt on March 30, 1981. The administration sought to...
Modern technology has provided many new opportunities in medicine, one of which is improved learning through simulation. One of the newest incarnations of robotic simulation dolls is the Victoria S2200 produced by Gaumard scientific company. With the recent surge of technological advancement in simulation dolls there has been little research...
In his July 31, 1996 remarks on welfare reform, President Clinton signaled his intent to sign into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming federal welfare policy. During the press conference, Clinton framed welfare as necessary but ultimately temporary relief, stating its...
The archaeological record of the First Americans is known almost exclusively from interior sites located away from coastal margins. While archaeologists hypothesize that early peoples initially migrated into the Americas along the Pacific coast, environmental changes associated with postglacial sea level rise may have destroyed or obscured such early sites....
The primary goal of this study is to look at the influence of family communication patterns on behavior and beliefs, specifically in the context of electoral behavior. In order to effectively influence potential voters and increase the likelihood that they intend to vote in federal elections in the long-term, we...
The Confucius Institutes program is a Chinese organization established in 2004 to provide the world with language instruction and increase cultural awareness. The program forms joint venture business models with universities and schools around the world to establish language and culture centers on their school’s campus (“Constitution and By-Laws”). Over...
The relationship between the public and new technologies has historically been a tumultuous one, with public perceptions ranging from excited rapid adoption to standoffish pessimism. In 2011, IBM tried to use competition as a means of showcasing a new technology to the public. This thesis is a work of rhetorical...
According to the World Health Organization (2019), every 40 seconds, approximately one person from around the world dies from suicide. The highest percentage of adults with major depression and serious thoughts of suicide are between 18 to 25 years of age (Shen & Millet 2003-2012, p. 31). Studies have indicated...
Studies on prison contracting have typically focused on the privatization of entire facilities and carceral services offered to inmates. There has been limited research, however, as to how political ideology influences the extent to which state prisons contract out health care services. There also appears to be a need for...
Mystical experiences are ineffable, thus defining mysticism itself is a difficult feat. To aid in the construction of a definition of mysticism it is imperative to break down the unique elements of a mystical experience and try to give examples of where we can see all of these elements interacting....
America is said to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. With the unfair treatment of people of color in this country, however, one would believe that somewhere in the fine print, they were excluded from that phrase. The very foundation of this country was...
On top of time demanding athletic and academic constraints, Division I student-athletes must balance many social identities, that include their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religious affiliation, etc. This study attempts to fill the gap by providing student-athletes with marginalized identities a platform to (1) offer their own...
It has been established that intercollegiate sport is an important social institution for student athletes of color in the United States (Coakley, 2012). White intercollegiate coaches have a prominent influence on the academic, athletic, social and emotional development of student athletes and therefore must be tuned into variation in cultural...
In this thesis, I examine Johan Galtung’s theory of violence and discuss how his concepts of cultural and structural violence helps explain the problem of direct violence among Mexican American youth. I argue that cultural violence, mainly dominant narratives of colonialism and masculinity, cause some Mexican American youth to act...
Learning is lifelong, life-wide and life-deep, meaning it happens anywhere, at any time (Banks, et al., 2007). The implications of learning with intent, is where “free choice learning” began (Falk and Dierking, 2002; 2010). Families play a vital role in developing an integrated curriculum including: rural anthropology (epigenetics, tribalism), Geosciences...
According to Wang and Repetti (2013), American adults are working more hours per week than in decades past. Additionally, more people in each family must work to support their families (Patten, 2015). This has led to an increase in stress levels due to the strain that is placed on balancing...
This study discusses common struggles of first-generation Polynesian football players’ university experiences with cultural adaptation. There is little research on this topic. Because of the importance of these issues and the exploratory nature of this study, a qualitative approach was needed. Interviews were conducted with 15 first-generation Polynesian football male...
The purpose of this study was to provide exploratory understanding of the nature of academic prestige in the field of sociology, and to provide insights into the history of the discipline. The primary research question was: does academic prestige act as a factor in controlling academic knowledge production in the...
This project hypothesizes that the use of multiple ground-based remote sensing methods can collectively characterize the geophysical signatures of four marked human burials at the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians historic period cemetery. If the geophysical signatures of the marked burials can be characterized, these signatures may be used to...
Research has shown that African Americans/Blacks, especially those with low socioeconomic status, acknowledge athletics as an avenue for upward mobility (Coakley, 2011). Although the chances of becoming a professional athlete might seem unachievable through sports, athletes develop tangible and intangible abilities that transfer and are useful in the years following...
American women’s quest for equality came into focus in the early 1900s. Amidst the cultural and societal forces pushing for suffrage, some chose the mechanism of theater. This thesis is a work of rhetorical criticism. It applies Lloyd Bitzer’s situational approach to two suffrage theater artifacts: Mary Shaw's The Woman...
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 settlement history of a remote area in the Coast Range of Oregon, from the 1870s to the 1930s, is examined through factors that may have influenced the success or failure, and length of residence of the homesteaders and later residents. Despite the rugged and isolated location, a small community...
The analysis of prehistoric stone features has suffered for two separate but related reasons. The first is the lack of stringency in defining the terms attributed to these structures and, second, the perception of a lack of formal attributes exhibited by them. These two factors have made it impossible to...
The perception that there exists a lack of leadership can be found throughout history. Currently, according to Robert Putnam, there does appear to be a decline is social capital. This research examines the connection between business leadership style and effects on social capital. Most research on corporate social responsibility focuses...
The present research sought to investigate individual differences in the way individuals process intuitive risk judgments. The present investigation is centered on Fuzzy Trace Theory (Brainerd & Reyna, 1991), a developmental dual process theory of cognition which posits two ways in which individuals process information, gist and verbatim processing. 228...
On January 2, 2016 a militia occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and captured national attention. The militia vowed to occupy until certain demands were met, and among these demands was a call for less federal control of land. While the occupation lasted 41 days, the militia remained...
Mary Collins composed the award-winning book American Idle in 2009 after her recovery from an awful bicycle accident. This bicycle accident inspired Mary Collins to take a trip of discovery. Mary Collins visited historical locations to see changes in peoples’ physical activity over time. Collins interviewed individuals whose professions varied...
In this qualitative case study, the implementation of a student-centered model of teaching, “Design Thinking, is explored to understand the difficulties learners experience when studying a foreign language in formal learning environments. This study suggests that excessive concentration on factors of grammar, translation, pronunciation, vocabulary, and lack of speech activity...
Across the U.S. social activism is on the upsurge, offering possibilities for a revolution against capitalism. However, these possibilities are potentially undermined by entrenched factionalism amongst the left. At root, such in-fighting is fostered by the creation of false dualistic frameworks on the transition out of capitalism and into the...
Following a history of tensions surrounding concubinage in medieval and early modern Spain, the Church sought greater control of religious life, particularly over the sacrament of marriage, via the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The Church exercised its strengthened restrictions and prosecuted these relationships with more frequency, as did civil...
Humans have a desire for a connection among others, and they also have a desire for both giving and receiving affection, regardless of class, age, gender, cultural or religious backgrounds. There is a plethora of research on the health benefits for both giving and receiving affection in romantic and family...
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a formidable international force operating and perpetuating religious, military, and violent agendas. In 2014, ISIS established a worldwide Caliphate governing religious authority across Middle Eastern territories. ISIS operations are grandiose and large scale, longevity and survival are predicated on recruitment. One...
This thesis is an effort to formalize and document some of the changes occuring in the Warwar Valley of Gongola State, Nigeria, West Africa. The documentation will comprise a photographic study over time accompanied by an ethnographic narrative. Information gathered from photographic images, field notes and the anthropological record will...
According to the Center for Disease Control, 7-in-10 people use their smartphones while driving. This includes behaviors such as sending or reading text messages or emails, taking photos, or using social media. Despite its prevalence amongst drivers, using one’s phone while driving is considered one of the worst types of...
Hostile sexism (HS) is an antagonistic attitude towards women; benevolent sexism (BS) is a positive attitude towards women that is sexist in terms of viewing women in restricted roles. HS and BS held simultaneously is defined as ambivalent sexism (AS). Despite negative outcomes associated with AS, BS, and HS, women...
The study of motivation in second language acquisition has been a matter of interest for many years. The research objective of this project was to conduct a study that would determine the motivation level of students of Spanish 113 during Spring term 2016 at Oregon State University, and how their...
The research conducted here originated with the question of what caused the massive build-up of nuclear arsenals, which included ever larger and more powerful bombs and delivery systems from them, in the United States and the Soviet Union, even though the consensus beforehand was that nuclear energy should be prohibited...
African American male students are a small portion of the student body at NCAA Division 1-A schools, but they make up a large portion of population of college football players. African American male college students are also one of the most at-risk student populations on campus in regards to retention....
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is an interdisciplinary academic field that addresses gender, sexuality, and social justice issues. The research objective of this project was to examine the attitudes of self-identified male students in introductory Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for winter term 2016 at Oregon State University. This...
Pornography remains one of the most controversial topics in our culture. Politicians, religious groups, and special interest organizations tend to focus on the ‘effects’ pornography has on those who consume it, and fear that pornography is a threat to public health. The general discourse surrounding pornography is that men produce...
Recent scientific studies show that framing climate change as a health issue rather than an environmental issue were more persuasive with American audience members (Maibach et. al., 2010; Maibach et. al. 2014). Also in 2014, a survey on respiratory healthcare providers and found that a large percentage believed that climate...
Videotapes of 90 dyadic interactions from Sommer and Bernieri (2015) were examined to assess verbal and nonverbal intimacy. Verbal intimacy (self-disclosing statements) and nonverbal intimacy behaviors (face gaze, distance, body orientation, and forward lean) were coded in every interaction. It was hypothesized that verbal intimacy (self-disclosure) would increase over time...
This thesis examines the role of Erikson’s (1950) theory of generativity in facilitating knowledge transfer during the preretirement transition. McAdams and de St. Aubin’s (1992) updated framework for generativity is used as a theoretical foundation to explain motivation and actions during this period. Through the use of multiple-case studies, twenty-one...
The ability to accurately convey an intended nonverbal emotional message is critical for competent interpersonal functioning. To examine encoding ability, a replication of Noller’s (1980) study employing content standard methodology was conducted. This method is essentially an acting task where participants are given a hypothetical social scene within which they...
Rural students have lagged behind non-rural students in matriculation into higher education, as well as in completion of four-year degrees. The current studies sought to investigate academic readiness, academic performance, and psychological differences between rural and non-rural students at Oregon State University. Rural and non-rural students were compared during spring...
The present research sought to investigate the relationship between an individual's word choice and their social well-being. In the present investigation, social well-being is a person's social health in relation to their social environment, social network, and ability to interact with others in a social context. This thesis was based...
Previous research on age-related differences in attentional capture has indicated that older adults are more susceptible to distraction than younger adults and this has been interpreted as a reduced capacity to inhibit distraction in late life. Recently, however, there have been discrepancies in the literature about in what circumstances older...
This research examines the literary and philosophical dimensions of the African American Harlem Renaissance, beginning with the historical milieu of the early twentieth century. A social movement that became known as Uplift and the so-called Cabaret Movement emerged as important, competing literary and social ideologies within the Renaissance. W.E.B. Du...
This thesis describes how heteropatriarchal, settler colonialism impacted Indigenous communities' systems in power and control, particularly with the American Indian Movement during the 1960s-1970s. Further, the gendered divides this created within the American Indian Movement are described. The murder of Anna Mae Aquash is revisited as an act of gendered...
On February 9th, 2014 Michael Sam stated in an interview with ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that he is gay. Since he was drafted, Sam will become the first ever openly gay player in NFL history. The following study aims to explore ESPN's coverage of Michael Sam, with a goal of...
The present study examined involuntary attentional bias toward facial emotion expression. Particularly, the study examined two different attentional components for emotional processing, namely, orienting vs. disengagement. A cueing paradigm using two cue presentation times (250ms and 350ms) was used to determine if attention would be involuntarily captured by an irrelevant...
Bisexual females experience unique forms of discrimination, but are often overlooked in scholarship. Recent research focuses on various aspects of bisexuality, yet female bisexuality is largely overlooked. Many existing studies focus on the experiences of bisexuals, rather than on social constructions of the identity and the role communication plays in...
The purpose of this study is to examine significant and persistent problems within the Salem-Keizer School District, particularly when comparing Douglas McKay High School to West Salem High School. Douglas McKay High School is one of the physically smallest schools in the district, with over 2000 students and has the...
U.S. foreign policy during the period between World War II and the Vietnam War has been described as part of a “nation-‐building” or “liberal” grand strategy. This thesis contends that understanding U.S. efforts to influence the internal affairs of sovereign states through the spread of liberal values and institutions during...
One's ability to determine the cause and effect nature events is important for navigating within the social realm. However, the ability to determine these relationships is not always as clear. According to Weary and Edwards (1996) causal uncertainty (CU) is the result of an individual perceiving themselves as someone who...
There is a connection between science and art. This study is specifically looking at the connection between soil science, art, and biochemistry. The traditional display of research in the sciences is in a written form such as a manuscript or journal article. To challenge this traditional presentation of scientific knowledge...
The Syrian civil war generated waves of refugees who flow into neighboring countries. These refugees have been creating excess supply of labor in host countries. This study involves a series of interviews in which respondents shared their perceptions of their involvement in the labor market in Iraq. These interviews provide...
This thesis combines elements of forestry, interpersonal communication, and rhetoric to describe where residents of Coos Bay and North Bend Oregon obtain information about forests and forest uses, and how they view the credibility of that information. As a qualitative exploratory study, grounded theory methodology was used to develop theme...
As a young adult, I have been able to witness first hand just how drastically social media is changing our culture and the way that we look at things. As social media continues to become more vastly used by its members who are in many different phases of life and...
Negative attitudes towards people with disabilities persist in our society, limiting the inclusion of people with disabilities in a multitude of social roles. Despite existing research on the nature of these attitudes and interventions to improve them, people with disabilities continue to cite social barriers as some of their greatest...
In the contemporary United States, the process of "coming out of the closet," or public disclosure of one's non-normative sexual orientation or gender identity, is ongoing and performative. Particularly within the context of dominant contemporary U.S. society, popular media favors a hegemonic set of defining characteristics, which thereby forces the...
Students who believe that their intelligence is able to grow over time (malleable/ growth mindset) perform better on measures of academic success than students who believe that intelligence is a fixed trait that cannot be changed (fixed mindset; Dweck, 2000). Previous research on the effectiveness of mindset interventions have demonstrated...
Several behavioral studies have suggested that rarity is critical for enabling irrelevant, salient objects to capture attention. We tested this hypothesis using the event-related potential (ERP) component, N2pc, thought to reflect attentional allocation. A cue display was followed by a target display in which participants identified the letter in a...
Title IX's passage into law in 1972 set women’s sports on a course toward gender equity with men's sports at the scholastic and collegiate levels, leading to a definitive growth in women’s professional leagues, corresponding athlete salaries, and athletic marketing and promotional prospects. However, disparities currently exist in the availability...
The search for and discovery of early archaeological sites is an inherently geoarchaeological problem. Archaeological sites of late Pleistocene-age are known to be located in the Intermountain West, however, the record of these early sites remains limited to only a few examples. In the lower Salmon River canyon (LSRC), the...
In Nazi Germany, 1938, Der Stürmer publishing house, under the control of Julius Striecher, published Der Giftpilz or The Poisonous Mushroom; an anti-Semitic children's book. Disseminated in the thousands, Der Giftpilz became infamously known as a children's book so grotesque it could be, and in fact was, admitted as evidence...
Previous studies using an incidental learning paradigm have found that facial emotion enhances subsequent face recognition. The present study examined whether emotion enhances only memory for the specific emotional features, or whether it also enhances general memory of that person's identity. Prior to the study, we had 20 participants validate...
Online fanfiction communities have received attention for providing spaces of creativity and individual empowerment. Yet as critics have sought to establish fanfiction as a worthy object of study, many have not grappled with the ways that fanfictions not only trouble, but also reinforce various discourses and ideas of gender and...
Sexual assault in the military is prevalent, underestimated, and sadly overlooked. This is largely due to the inherent patriarchy and hegemonic masculine ideologies that set rigid power boundaries in the military. The roles of powerful and powerless are indoctrinated into Servicemembers from the first moment of training, and are reified...
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...
Archaeological excavations of the Cooper's Ferry site in the Lower Salmon River Canyon, Idaho, have revealed a stratified record of cultural occupation, spanning the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the understanding of cultural adaptive strategies represented in the archaeological record...
Interweaving perspectives from both social cognitive psychology and Tibetan Buddhism, the present study examined common and differential effects of two styles of meditation: Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) and mindfulness meditation (MM). Psychological theories of construct accessibility postulate that cognitive constructs activated frequently are more readily available for processing stimuli. Researchers in...
First Ladies have performed a variety of public and private roles, from presidential escort, hostess, and social advocate to policy maker and presidential advisor. The nature of the position has always been both traditional and gendered, greatly influencing each First Lady's performance. Due to the changing role of women in...
The process of leaving a work organization is difficult. Leaving an organization that you are part of as a volunteer is just as difficult. In fraternities, upperclassmen members tend to move out one year before they graduate. This is a problem that can create a leadership gap in the chapter...