School is a hostile environment for many LGBTQ youth. Teachers participate, consciously or unconsciously, in perpetuating oppressive heteronormative expectations in the classroom both through the overt and covert curriculum. Yet, pre-service teachers are under-trained about questions related to gender and sexuality during their teacher preparation. This qualitative study explores the...
This dissertation draws on ethnographic data and political ecological theory to analyze the experience of residents living in the IBM-Endicott Superfund site in Endicott, New York. Combining in-depth narratives and quantitative measures from a household survey, it highlights residents' perceptions of 1) environmental health risk, 2) risk mitigation, 3) deindustrialization...
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...
The persistent underrepresentation and marginalization of women of color in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are well-documented. However, much of the existing literature takes an “either/or” approach, focusing solely on the experiences of either “women” or “minorities” in STEM, without adequately examining the unique experiences of...
This project analyzes how women have radically changed the world of western print in the 21st century. To conduct this analysis, I examine a series of oral history interviews that I conducted in 2020 with women printers on the West Coast and employ a critical feminist methodology to study the...
This manuscript-style dissertation explores Diné (Navajo) education and teaching in the context of a research project that negotiated the demands of both Navajo Nation IRB and Oregon State University IRB. In the first manuscript, the researcher examines his journey of using cultural resilience strategies to succeed in the education system...
Similar to other spectacular scenic areas in the American West, Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains have been a contested landscape since the beginning of the 20th century. Although, legislation was introduced in Congress as early as 1913 to protect the towering mountains of south-central Idaho as a national park, the issue...
This thesis explores the evolving purposes for the teaching of first-year English composition in Belize. Starting from an analysis of the underlying cultural assumptions of U.S. composition pedagogies, this thesis argues that American composition pedagogies need to be rethought when applied in a Belizean context to fulfill the country's unique...
Organic semiconductors are of interest for (opto)electronic applications due to their low cost, solution processability, and tunable properties. Natural product-derived organic pigments have attracted attention due to their extraordinary environmental stability and unexpectedly good optoelectronic performance, in spite of only partially conjugated molecular structures. Fungi-derived pigments are a naturally sourced,...
Nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners control a significant portion of forestland nationwide. Even though women own or manage NIPF lands, we know very little about how women manage forestland and what barriers women face in forest management. In addition, while there are several forestry organizations available to NIPF owners, few...