<p> The first road to be built into Humla, Nepal has connected this once-remote Himalayan region to a market in China. This dissertation research assesses the impacts of this road on villagers&rsquo; food security, diet and nutrition, and subjective well-being, and investigates the link between objective and subjective health outcomes. The primary aim of this study is to decipher whether villagers&rsquo; &lsquo;proximity to road&rsquo; is the strongest predictor of the aforementioned health outcomes, or whether other sociocultural and economic variables play a more significant role. A mixed-methods approach and a case-control ethnographic research design were implemented in order to investigate this question.</p><p> Results from the food security questionnaire indicate that due to easy accessibility and low costs, villagers now supplement their agricultural yields with enriched, processed foods obtained via the road. Although villagers perceive their current food security as being significantly higher than in years past, results indicate that food security levels do not always positively correlate with either &lsquo;proximity to road&rsquo; or the harvest season. Nutrient composition analysis indicates that differences in both livelihood tasks and prestige ascription by gender and age yield a high variability in both dietary patterns and nutritional outcomes. These differences are also reflected in the anthropometric data, which show that while a portion of the study population is &lsquo;underweight&rsquo;, another portion is simultaneously &lsquo;overweight&rsquo;. Villagers&rsquo; subjective well-being, in addition to being defined differently from village to village, has a higher correlation with human capital levels and socioeconomic status than with &lsquo;proximity to road&rsquo;.</p><p> This research illuminates the complexity involved with determining whether the introduction of a road will manifest in positive health outcomes. Using the new road in Humla District, Nepal, as a case study, this research takes advantage of a unique opportunity to study human dietary shifts as they are in the process of occurring. By assessing villagers&rsquo; decision-making patterns regarding their food consumption, the overall aim of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the dietary sea change that is leaving its mark on the quality of life across the globe.</p>

<p> Over fifty thousand Chinese students are leaving China to study in US high schools. This interview-based, narrative inquiry study focuses on the experience of ten Chinese nationals now studying at a US high school and expands work done in comparative pedagogy by offering thick descriptions of the school experience in two cultures. This study makes the case that China&rsquo;s changing culture is reflected in the stories and school histories of Chinese students who experience pedagogy as significantly different in China and the US. The push that drives students out of China includes high-stakes testing and public ranking systems and the individual success of students within these systems. Students&rsquo; experience school in China as a symbiotic relationship between teachers, students, and schools, which often manifests in culturally located methods for efficient study, including achievement collaboration&mdash;wherein actors work together for mutual success. It is within this context that many students are pulled to study in the US in order to take up a certain degree of cultural rebellion, wherein they perceive that US schools have the resources to provide for broader constructions of school success than in China. This study illuminates how these students then gain new knowledge around how to be successful in school in two cultures and how to better navigate global education mobility. It is in this way that Chinese students become conduits of change. They influence the curricula, programming, and services offered at the schools they attend in both countries, emphasizing how cross-border mobility (re)shapes the identities and values around education for all involved, from individual students and schools to educational policy and reform. This study engages how schools in the US are meeting the needs of these students in both policy and practice, and lends nuance to the literature around intercultural education and the impact of globalization on pedagogy.</p>

No description available.

<p> Researchers in cross-cultural pedagogy often invoke the work of Hofstede (1980; 1986) and Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010) to explain variation in classroom behavioral norms across countries (e.g. Cronj&eacute;, 2011; Li &amp; Guo, 2012; Tananuraksakul, 2013). Although Hofstede' s model of culture was developed from IBM employee surveys to facilitate cross-cultural management, Hofstede explicitly suggests that his findings can be generalized to student and teacher behavior in the classroom. The present study tests this suggestion by administering an online survey to university students (n=625) in the following countries: USA (n=181), South Africa (n=103), China (n=64), Turkey, (n=60), Russia, (n=59), Finland (n=58), Vietnam (n=52), and France (n=48). Although the number of countries included in this study is too low to produce globally generalizable results, a statistical comparison of national means on each item fails to support Hofstede's predictions about how national culture manifests in the classroom for these particular countries. Instead, provisional support is found for the creation of a new set of cultural dimensions for the specific purpose of studying classroom culture, with three such dimensions emerging from a principal components analysis of the present data set. The examination of national differences on individual items in this survey can also be useful for traveling instructors of English-speaking university classrooms. </p>

<p> This study used grounded theory to understand how the first two generations of Korean- American pastors conceptualize leadership. Interviews were conducted with both first- and second-generation Korean-American pastors both in Northern and Southern California. This study discovered that the first-generation Korean-American concept of leadership is heavily influenced by Confucian thought where the ideal leader is called by God. In response, the leader regularly practices the rites of spirituality, prayer and sacrifice. The practice of these rites gives the first-generation pastor legitimacy in exercising authority over his congregation. In contrast, the second-generation leadership model appears to be influenced by being in the Millennial generation. Two of the key aspects of Millennial desire for their work environment are (a) maximizing the balance of work and life and (b) the strong desire for mentorship. Both of these are highly evident in the second-generation concept of leadership. Legitimacy for exercising authority within the second-generation comes from the sacrifice demonstrated in the mentoring relationship. Comparing both generations concept of leadership to Bass&rsquo; (1999) four aspects of transformational leadership, this study discovered that both generations can fit into Bass&rsquo; model of transformational leadership. Applying Pearce&rsquo;s (2004) coordinated management of meaning to understand the intercultural communication issues present between the two generations, this study discovered that although the terminology of both generations were similar, the undergirding concept was quite different and to some degree opposite.</p>

<p> This qualitative inquiry takes place within a growing body of interdisciplinary work dedicated to reimagining community, one&rsquo;s relationship to it, and ultimately one&rsquo;s place within the global community. The study is rooted in depth psychology&rsquo;s recognition that the psyche is independently real and everything has meaning. Community is an ongoing story: a living myth. One can tally all the concrete aspects of community yet still not understand what makes community. To better understand community, this study used a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to explore the lived experience of those living in a small Tuscan village, Pari. This entailed relying on an archetypal mythological lens to interpret a rich harvesting of interviews, storytelling, dreamy attention, and the researcher&rsquo;s own reflections. The goal was to understand what it means to be part of this ancient community today, to appreciate the dynamics at work within the community psyche, and to dream the community on into the future. It was found that life in this community has a rhythmic structure that permeates everyone and everything. The most important common thread was that love connects people to this place. It was also found that as this once self-enclosed community becomes increasingly porous to the world, the population diversity increases and self-sufficiency decreases. It was concluded that Pari&rsquo;s myth is to become a global village. The community&rsquo;s challenge for survival is to integrate its core rhythmic structure with the incoming technology age. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> community, door, myth, rebirth, hermeneutic-phenomenology, Janus</p>

<p> The war on obesity is a compelling topic in the United States&mdash;especially when as of 2012 17 percent, approximately 12.7 million, of children between the ages of 2-19 years are obese. This topic matters to anthropologists for two reasons&mdash;first, childhood socialization has been a focal point in the study of anthropology, and secondly, food is culture. This project report reflects my collaboration with a school in Southern California to implement a different approach to teaching children healthy eating habits. It focuses on ways that introducing new foods in a positive and fun environment will create a better relationship with food while increasing the students&rsquo; cultural awareness. This approach combined the fields of geography, history, culture, and cuisine to teach students how each field influences one another and affects the nutrition of the people and in turn ourselves. Using standard ethnographic techniques of participant observation this research reports on the reaction the students have to learning about food in a cultural context. </p>

<p> Created in 2005, Etsy.com is an e-commerce site where individuals sell handmade goods whose primary users are women. Examining the experiences of ten women selling handmade items on Etsy and how they use Instagram to interact with each other and to promote their online shops, the research intends to contribute to literature of online communities, feminist, and globalization and modernization theories. Using interviews and observations of participants&rsquo; Etsy and social accounts, we gain a deeper understanding of these women&rsquo;s experiences. The women with children spend more time developing relationships with other Etsy moms than those without children. However, all participants felt that through their crafts, they were creating a more ethical and sustainable marketplace in the global economy. More research should examine online relationship building through real-world activities like crafting and the agency that small-scale businesses have to influence ideas about large-scale manufacturing practices.</p>

This thesis focuses on the transmission and role of poetry and song within the Somali community in London’s King’s Cross, which has developed since 1991 as Somalis have fled from violence in their homeland. I explore the relationship between past and present, continuity and change within Somali oral artforms, and the role of song and poetry in transmitting cultural knowledge. I also consider the potential of sound archives – specifically the British Library’s World and Traditional Music section, which neighbours the Somali community in King’s Cross – to support the continuation of oral tradition and impact upon individual and collective memory processes within diasporic communities. I demonstrate the ongoing role of poetry and song in mediating and communicating relationship with place and negotiating multiple subjectivities among Somalis in the diaspora, presenting examples of Somali community members in King’s Cross renewing, constructing and expressing sense of belonging to different locales and group identities through composing, listening to, discussing and performing song and poetry. With “proactive archiving” (drawing on Edmonson’s “proactive access” 2004: 20) at the heart of my methodology, I elucidate the relationship between song as an archival form and the place and practice of ethnomusicology sound archives, demonstrating the challenges and benefits of engaging diasporic communities with archival recordings. I consider the dynamism of the Somali oral network and the ongoing mobility and change experienced by Somali residents of King’s Cross, which stands in notable contradistinction to the permanence and fixity of the British Library, and I call for a move forward from the notion of proactive archiving to one of sustainable archiving – an approach that would empower community members to record and archive their personal musical heritage in a systematic and ongoing way.

<p> In my thesis I set out to investigate and understand my personal relationship with hip-hop music and the part it played in my development. In addition to my personal story, I sought to understand the status of hip-hop in a rural state like West Virginia. I utilized a memoir style of writing that relied heavily on self- reflection. I then fact checked my memories by incorporating hard data which allowed me to gain a greater understanding of how media spreads, and is consumed in West Virginia. I could then compare this data to the media consumption of the United States. These statistics showed that West Virginia is cut off from much of the media that is enjoyed by the majority of the country. The reasons were more varied and complex that I imagined, and ultimately my thesis changed course as I learned about my home state. In conclusion, my personal experience with hip hop was not typical of most adolescents in West Virginia. The trend in West Virginia is to maintain the status quo and reject new ideas. Most likely this will continue to be the trend as college educated youth continue to leave for more forward thinking surroundings. Media is simply a microcosm of the greater lack of any change in the social or political climate of the state.</p>