Interdisciplinary Studies: Individualized Program Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
Tech-Savvy Teachers: A Case Study Investigating the Relationship between Teachers’ Perceptions of Mobile Devices, Participation in Optional Professional Development, and Application Usage in Classrooms
(University of Oregon, 2019-09-18) De Clercq, Celine; Biancarosa, Gina
The increase of mobile devices (iPads, tablets) in classroom learning brings excitement to the learning environment. Previous research regarding mobile devices in educational settings focused on new technology's relationship to student engagement. However, it is equally important to understand driving factors in teachers’ choices to engage with technology. The current study utilizes the modified Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) as proposed by Sanchez-Prieto et al. (2016). The study validates the proposed scale and analyzes the correlation between engagement with professional development (PD) and the use of the KinderTEK math application in classrooms. An aggregate correlation showed significant results from the mobile anxiety subscale MA = .874, p = .023. The lower administrators’ anxiety scores were, the higher usage of the application in classrooms associated with their schools. Participation in PD was too low to draw any significant conclusion. The current study provides insights into systems of support for teachers utilizing technology.
Open Access
Administrative Finality and the Tax Court of the United States
(1949-06) Dixon, Brock
The objectives of this paper are: (1) To review briefly the history of the Board of Tax Appeals and the Tax Court; (2) to trace the increase of its power and influence from its origin in 1924 to its climax in the years 1943-1946; (3) to examine rather thoroughly the dicta of the courts, especially the Supreme Court, on the finality of Tax Court decisions; and (4) to criticize what passes for a solution of the problem of the Tax Court's finality, namely Public Law 773, which became effective September 1, 1948.
Open Access
The Determinants of the Interest Rate and its Relation to Savings, Investment and Capital Formation
(1948-06) Cannon, Arthur M.
This is part of a projected larger study on Conflicts in Economic Thought. The present purpose is to set forth a disciplined approach to a particular controversy. That selected-- on capital and interest-- is one of many in economic theory in which exist historical and continuing disagreements event on basic concepts. I have gained the impression that current economic writing is much concerned with terminological disputes, with proving someone else wrong, with intensive refinement of small facets of theory, and with overconfident "proof" of hypotheses by somewhat dubious statistical measurements. It seems to me that some of this effort would be better applied to the development of a body of basic theory related to the real world. In the writings on capital and interest is found an abundance of these superficial and argumentative approaches. I propose instead what I call a "disciplined approach". This involves careful consideration and balancing of opposing theories, and a resort to facts and logic not to destroy but to test and synthesize. That is what I try to do herein.
Open Access
Authority in the Zuozhuan
(University of Oregon, 1996-08) Duncan, William E.
The Zuozhuan 评论 (Zuo Commentaries); a narrative history of China's Spring and Autumn period (722-479 BCE), has been included among the thirteen classics of Confucianism since the Tang dynasty. Yet its pages contain numerous references to Shang and early Zhou divination practices. It seems paradoxical that a text identified with Confucian humanism would be full of references to the supernatural. I suggest that the Zuozhuan builds upon the foundations of the authority of Shang and Zhou ritual to establish the authority of Confucian doctrine. This phenomenon has been mentioned by other scholars, though no study has addressed this directly. It is the goal of this thesis to use passages in the Zuozhuan to demonstrate how authority moved from an external source to an internal source during the Eastern Zhou and to show that Zuozhuan makes use of something that Lakoff and Johnson have called idealized cognitive models.
Open Access
William Blake and the Mysticisms of Sense and Non-sense
(University of Oregon, 1960-06) Peat, Raymond F.
Open Access
Opening Credits: An Original Screenplay and Independent Film Preproduction Lookbook, as Envisioned Through the Lens of Creative Writing, Film, and Entrepreneurial Business
(University of Oregon, 2014-06-17) Pappas, Alexi; Aronson, Michael
This thesis includes a script and general description of the development of Stick & Chub, a feature film about running to and running from. The screenplay and Lookbook are presented as they would be to investors, producers, cast, and crew associated with the actual production of the film. The Lookbook includes a plot synopsis, an artistic statement, biographies of the production team, a basic financial overview, and information about the plan to incorporate branded sponsorship, appearances from well-known track and field athletes, and social media marketing to connect with the core fan base. The Lookbook was created as a preproduction information resource in order to familiarize investors and other collaborators with the Stick & Chub project. A supplemental file contains the visual sample component of the Lookbook.
Open Access
The Rhetoricity of Ovid’s Construction of Exile and the Poeta Structus Exsulis (With a Special Addendum Concerning Alexander Pushkin)
(University of Oregon, 2012-10-25) Toman, Samantha; Toman, Samantha; Bowditch, Phebe Lowell
In Ovid’s Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponto, the Latin poet constructs an elaborate poetic persona endowed with its own agency, which evokes the sympathy of the reader through engaging in various modes of discourse. This inquiry examines, in depth, how Ovid fashioned his poeta structus through complex modes of discourse and from making use of conventions of genre, namely elegy and epic. These modes of discourse are identified and explored, as well as Ovid’s markedly hyperbolic treatment of the landscape and inhabitants of his exilic outpost of Tomis on the Black Sea. The implications of the exile being surrounded by the Sarmatian and Getic languages are also expounded upon, both in the way the poeta presents the putative effects of the language of the other, as well as the evidence of linguistic evolution in the ‘actuality’ of Ovid’s situation. A comparison is drawn between Cicero’s notion of naufragium, ‘shipwreck,’ and Ovid’s refinement of the term, as well as the rhetorical treatment of exile as a form of death by both authors. Lastly, a special addendum takes a fresh look at Alexander Pushkin’s nuanced reception of the Ovidian poeta structus in his own exilic poetry from 1820-1825.
Open Access
Notes on Strategy
(University of Oregon, 2012-10-25) Fiorentino, Ryan; Fiorentino, Ryan; Davis, Howard
The purpose of this report is to generate the capacity for dialogue around the tenants of design thinking and strategy, the perceived systemic underpinnings of productivity and economic fortitude. This report contends that in order for the US economy to generate productivity growth, by way of a virtuous cycle of job growth and value added, organizations and individuals as well as the public sector must begin thinking through design. This report questions what it takes for organizations to make breakthrough productivity transformations that spark novel developments in customer value. Fieldwork was conducted on a variety of levels in effort to further the understanding of the way design strategy can take form at the personal, organizational, and societal levels. Primary insights were generated through an organizational ethnography of COMMON, a collaborative community and brand committed to accelerating social and economic innovation. Ultimately, a systemic framework is established that suggests strategic cultural alignment at an organizational level links individual wholeness to economic growth.
Open Access
A Retrospective Study of the Demographics and Wound Characteristics of Firearm Related Fatalities in Lane County, 1986-2007
(University of Oregon, 2010-12) Rexford, Annie Khrystin, 1983-
The goals of this study are to assess a) the role of mass and velocity on the size of entrance wounds, b) the presence or absence and types of exit wounds, and c) the role of gender in choosing to commit suicide with a firearm. The results of an ANOVA revealed that the combination of a bullet’s mass and the relative velocity of the weapon is the most significant factor in entrance wound size. A logistic regression found that mass plays the most significant role in the presence of an exit wound. When considered separately, velocity had a more significant effect on exit type than did mass. The study also found that being male increases the odds that a firearm will be chosen to commit suicide. Handguns and the head were the most common choices for weapon and wound location, respectively, in both firearm suicides and homicides.
Open Access
Alternative Memorials: Death and Memory in Contemporary America
(University of Oregon, 2010-09) Dobler, Robert, 1980-
Alternative forms of memorialization offer a sense of empowerment to the mourner, bringing the act of grieving into the personal sphere and away from the clinical or official realm of funeral homes and cemeteries. Constructing a spontaneous shrine allows a mourner to create a meaningful narrative of the deceased's life, giving structure and significance to a loss that may seem chaotic or meaningless in the immediate aftermath. These vernacular memorials also function as focal points for continued communication with the departed and interaction with a community of mourners that blurs distinctions between public and private spheres. I focus my analysis on MySpace pages that are transformed into spontaneous memorials in the wake of a user's death, the creation of "ghost bikes" at the sites of fatal bicycle-automobile collisions, and memorial tattooing, exploring the ways in which these practices are socially constructed innovations on the traditional material forms of mourning culture.
Open Access
Historical Film Reception: An Ethnographic Focus beyond Entertainment
(University of Oregon, 2010-06) Bisson, Vincent J., 1984-
Drawing upon theories from folkloristics, history, and audience studies, this thesis analyzes historical films, their reception, and the importance of history and film in everyday life. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I demonstrate how a folkloric perspective may contribute to and strengthen the study ofhistorical films by emphasizing the attributes of narrative and belief at the vernacular level of reception. With an ethnographic and qualitative focus on the informal, common, and everyday film viewing habits of specific individuals in relation to historical belief, this project provides empirical evidence that is necessary for a more accurate understanding of the function and reception of historical films. This study also re-examines the formal aspects of historical films in relation to historical re-construction, the definition and categorization of such films, their reception, their function beyond entertainment, and the need for an integration of new research in both audience studies and folklore studies.
Open Access
Ethnography, Storytelling, and Phenomenology: Good Problems in Writing Religion
(University of Oregon, 2010-06) Moyer, Derek Harley, 1981-
Ethnographic accounts of religious practice offer rich and compelling access to the details of lived religion in local sites. Insights from the phenomenological tradition have become increasingly influential in thinking about what etlulOgraphies accomplish. Although etlmographies of religion do well to pay attention to phenomenological concems, ethnographic research and analysis cannot do the same work as phenomenological analysis in studying religion. Etlmographies of religion pay attention to diverse narratives and ways of storytelling, which are important aspects of members' lived religious practice but are unavailable in phenomenological analysis. Storytelling is a fragile research practice that involves inherent ambiguities for ethnographers. These ambiguities call for a persistent and critical reflexivity to be inscribed in ethnographic writing. This reflexivity implies a fundamentally ethical way of thinking about ethnographic research and writing, one that pays attention to the care that is required for good ethnographies of religious practice.
Open Access
"Death is the Only Reality": a Folkloric Analysis of Notions of Death and Funerary Ritual in Contemporary Caribbean Women's Literature
(University of Oregon, 2010-06) Vrtis, Christina E., 1979-
Caribbean cultural ideas and values placed on death and mourning, especially in relation to cultural roles women are expected to perform, are primary motivating factors in the development of female self and identity in Caribbean women's literature. Based on analysis of three texts, QPH, Annie John, and Beyond the Limbo Silence, I argue that notions of death and funerary rituals are employed within Caribbean women's literature to (re)connect protagonist females to their homeland and secure a sense of identity. In addition, while some texts highlight the necessity of prescribing to the socially constructed roles of women within the ritual context and rely on the uproper" adherence to the traditional process to maintain the status quo, other texts show that the inversion or subversion of these traditions is also an important aspect of funerary rituals and notions of death that permeate contemporary Caribbean culture.
Open Access
An Oil Curse? Resource Conflict Onset and Duration
(University of Oregon, 2000-12) Holland, Caroline M., 1986-
This study examines the effect oil has on the onset and duration of conflict. In the "resource curse" literature, researchers argue that a state's abundance in natural resources can raise the likelihood of civil war. Such findings are largely based on correlations from large-n statistical studies or are hypotheses from individual case studies. These approaches fail to check the causal validity of key variables in multiple cases. Using a data-set comprised of sixteen countries that have experienced both oil extraction and civil war, this study conducts a qualitative causal variable analysis within these cases, while also checking the causal significance of key variables across cases. This study of oil-related civil wars analyzes the cross-case validity and overall relevance of: rebel greed, citizen grievances, unemployment in oil-rich regions, state military spending, clientelistic patterns of oil rent distribution, and oil-sector nationalization schemes.
Open Access
Crafting Memories in the Mantaro Valley of Peru - Performance and Visual Representation in Craftswomen's Souvenir Production
(University of Oregon, 2009-09) Totten, Kelley D., 1976-
The Mantaro Valley of Peru is known for its distinctive Andean villages whose residents specialize in a traditional craft that defines the community's identity: gourd carvers call Cochas Grande home; tapestry weavers reside in Hualhuas; and silversmiths forge traditional designs in San Jeronimo. As tourism to the region develops, travelers purchase these handicrafts as souvenirs to represent and remember a visit to Peru. John Urry suggests that tourists "gaze" on locals, causing them to reconstruct themselves in terms of the tourists' ideas of authenticity. Based on my fieldwork in the Mantaro Valley, I complicate Urry's argument by presenting a multifaceted approach analyzing the complex ways in which these women communicate their individual, familial, regional and national identities through the objects they create. I incorporate visual rhetoric and material behavior theories to suggest alternative ways-of-looking within tourism interactions that consider the relationships between the craftswomen, intermediaries and tourists.
Open Access
Conflict Navigation as Rhetoric and Pedagogy for Academic Debating in the United States
(University of Oregon, 2009-09) Donaldson, Aaron Paul, 1980-
The purpose ofthis paper is to advocate Conflict Navigation as a new pedagogy aimed at uniting co-curricular debate educators in the United States. Contemporary collegiate debate demonstrates a crisis in pedagogy as seen in a history of "fractionation through structural fortification". This lack of a sustainable pedagogical community has proven to critically strain the resources and curricula of academic debate. Conflict Navigation (CN) represents a behavior-based approach to conflict with an emphasis on ethical rhetoric. The primary mission of argument within a CN framework is inquiry, cooperation, and engagement.
Open Access
An Analysis of the Reasons Behind the Lack of Black Head Football Coaches at the NCAA Division I-A Level and Recommendations on Improvements to Solve this Problem
(University of Oregon, 2009-06) Huske, Jared Thomas, 1987-
The lack of minority head coaches at the Division I-A level is not a new trend, nor one that is improving. In a sport where less than 10% of head coaches are minorities, a survey was randomly sent out to several head and assistant coaches at the collegiate level. The survey showed most coaches believe there are discrepancies in the hiring process that impair minorities, there tends to be unfair favoritism towards nonminority coaches after a termination and minority coaches are less likely to be recommended for a head coaching position. To encourage the diversity among head coaches, recommendations should include diversifying the hiring search committee, adding a rule similar to the National Football League's Rooney Rule and adding additional graduate assistant positions.
Open Access
What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate: Conflict Resolution and Peer Mediation Programs in Middle and High Schools in the U.S. and Their Ability to Serve Students from Diverse Backgrounds
(University of Oregon, 2008-12) Povenmire-Kirk, Tiana Cadye, 1974-
In this thesis, I examine the success of conflict resolution and peer mediation programs in U.S. middle and high schools. I investigate the ability ofthese programs to serve students from diverse backgrounds. Using multidisciplinary research literature, I discuss five factors that impact potential communication, conflict, and its resolution: gender, race, culture, disability and power. I explain how each of these factors intersects with one another and with the communication experiences of students. I describe the educational system as an existing institution in an excellent position to effect significant social change. I review the success ofcurrent programs used in schools and discuss their sensitivity to and appropriateness in serving students from diverse backgrounds. Finally, I make recommendations for how to modify programs and curricula to be inclusive of all students and how to utilize our current educational system as a vehicle for transformative social change.
Open Access
Birthing Centers as Ritual Spaces: The Embodiment of Compliance and Resistance Under One Roof: A Case Study
(University of Oregon, 2008-12) McIntyre, Mary Cortney, 1982-
A somewhat unknown option for pregnant women receiving prenatal, birth, and postpartum care is that of a birthing center, where midwifery and medical practices come together in varying forms. After conducting feminist-based, participant-observation research at a particular birthing center in the northwestern United States run by a licensed, certified professional midwife, I use ritual and rites of passage analysis to display both the benefits and downfalls of the mainstreaming of midwifery as found in a birthing center. I discuss how the birthing center is a ritual space. Within this ritual space, elaborated rituals act as both compliance with and resistance to established iv medical paradigms of birthing. These rituals serve as active negotiated appropriation and display the ways in which midwives knowledgeably balance trust in natural birth and medical practice, which both play important roles in pregnancy and birth.
Open Access
Evolution and Evaluation of a Non-Governmental Organization in Southeastern Madagascar: A Case Study of Azafady
(University of Oregon, 2008-09) Menard, Nicole L.
International environmental organizations in Madagascar have been criticized for using their power and influence to prioritize biodiversity protection over the needs of the Malagasy population. In this thesis, I examine these claims and evaluate the nongovernmental organization (NGO) of Azafady in southeastern Madagascar through interviews, textual analysis, and participant observation. The administrative structure reflects a cross-cultural element, and funding from an international "volun-tourism" program significantly contributes to the implementation of Azafady's projects. Despite this international influence, interviews with Azafady staff and Malagasy project participants reveal that this NGO determines their goals according to priorities expressed by Malagasy residents. My data also show the importance of evaluation methods that include participant feedback and can illuminate disparity in perceptions of project results. Azafady exemplifies an exception to the rule of "coercive conservation" in Africa and signals effective ways to approach conservation and development in Madagascar.