In this thesis, I argue that the cooptation and commodification of young peoples’ creative expressions of individuality through the practice of “coolhunting” causes alienation within said young people and is, therefore, unethical. I support this claim by using Marxist theory of the Frankfort Institute, viz., Max Horkheimer and Theodor W....
This qualitative study examined the experiences and perceptions of males aged 16 – 19 who did not complete a traditional high school diploma program because of feeling alienated from the school system. Five participants described their school experiences from elementary school through the point in high school when they decided...
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...
Navigating the transition to adulthood is fraught with challenges, especially for those coming of age during an economic crisis. Individuals often rely on support from existing social networks, and establish social capital through deepening and expanding social ties, as they establish footholds in roles marking adulthood. Yet investing in social...
This dissertation examines the impact of the German naturalist and literary figure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ideas on twentieth century Anglophone plant morphology and biology. Goethe interpreted the organ forms of flowering plants as metamorphoses of each other. His literary, historical, and philosophical writings suggest themes of alienation from and...
Both Ways is a collection of essays, prose, poetry, and "proems" which attempts to investigate the phenomena of multirace and multisexuality issues in greater detail. These works particularly explore questions of liminality and marginalization within American culture as it relates to characters who are experiencing anomie and alienation because of...
The goal of this study was to pursue the construct of transcendence from a psychosocial, developmental perspective to predict who will volunteer and its influence on the average number of volunteer hours worked per week. The predictor variable is the self-transcendence subscale score on the Adult Self-Transcendence Inventory (ASTI) (Levenson...
The literature on religiousness, spirituality (R/S), and health has increased dramatically in
the past decade, but suffers from a lack of integrative theoretical models and well-defined
constructs. Drawing on self-regulation theory, we hypothesized that the effects of religiousness
(e.g., affiliation, service attendance) on health affects behavioral self-regulation of health habits;...
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...
Her Hair is an Open Hand is a collection of free verse poems exploring unity and division through the lens of myth and place. The collection is organized into three sections. The first reflects on division: alienation between the speaker and physical landscapes, isolation within romantic relationships, and the violation...