<p> In this thesis, I examine how digital technology can benefit recording and interpretation methodology for archaeological rock art sites. The thesis is based on data collected at Walnut Canyon National Monument during a summer internship at the Flagstaff Area National Monuments in Arizona. Walnut Canyon is known for the Sinagua cliff dwellings that visitors can view from the trails. Though there are also many rock art panels within the monument&rsquo;s boundaries, the panels are still relatively unknown by archaeologists and inaccessible to visitors by both trails and lack of interpretive materials. The thesis is theoretically based in critical and multivocal approaches, which engage with power relations between professionals and non-professionals and add outside perspectives to archaeological interpretation, by examining how digital technology affects accessibility and public participation. To investigate how digital technology can enhance recording and interpretation of rock art, I use 3D photogrammetry, GigaPan high-resolution panoramas, 360-degree panoramas, oblique flash photography, Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), high dynamic range (HDR) photography, and DStretch photo enhancement software. What I find is that the digital recording methods I use for the project have much to offer both the public and researchers. While the methods do not replace a physical visit, a virtual visit could go far beyond many interpretive exhibits. Each method has its own considerations for how to be implemented effectively, so researchers and interpreters should consider any constraints they have and only select the methods that are most effective for their project goals. </p><p>

abstract: Arts and culture function as indispensable parts of humans’ lives. Numerous studies have examined the impact and value of arts and culture, from individual quality of life to overall community health. However, research has been less focused on identifying the influence of crucial dimensions of arts and culture on overall community well-being, and contributing to understanding the intertwining connection between these elements and community well-being. To explore the dimensions of arts and cultural resources and community well-being, and in turn, to present the relationship between them in a community, this dissertation was based on three subsequent studies. A total of 518 counties were included in the analysis. Specifically, this study is unique in that it sought evidence based on county-level data drawn on the Local Arts Index (LAI) from Americans for the Arts (AFA) and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHRR) variables to provide an arts-community measurement system suggesting critical and meaningful variables among a wide range of existing data. The results revealed the positive impacts of arts and cultural resources on community well-being. Each arts and cultural domain also has critical relationships with community individual, social, and economic well-being. Specifically, the ‘arts business’ domain was considerably associated with community individual well-being and comprehensive community well-being. The ‘arts consumption’ domain showed synthetically significant associations with community’s individual and economic well-being, and by extension, influenced comprehensive community well-being. Lastly, the ‘arts nonprofits’ domain was related to all the components of community well-being. In conclusion, residents’ arts consumption and the existence of arts and cultural/creative industries, including arts nonprofits, are constantly suggested as key to improving county-level community well-being. This study centers on presenting a more realistic vision of how arts and cultural resources are associated with community well-being components. Recognizing the power of arts and cultural resources in society and bolstering them to promote community well-being is a global issue of the utmost pertinence. Thus, research utilizing a longitudinal data-driven approach is likely to continue measuring the impact of arts and culture, and examining how they are related to and can strengthen community well-being. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2016

abstract: This dissertation begins with a simple question: By what process(es) have remote prehistoric ruins and natural wonders, particularly in the American Southwest, been transformed from interesting curiosities of the unknown frontier to American "national monuments"? If monuments, in their various forms, are understood as symbols of national and regional identities, then the National Park Service's (NPS) Flagstaff Area National Monuments (Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Wupatki) have been preserved for more than just their historic or scientific value. By tracing the story of these monuments from the era of European contact through the 1930s New Deal, when the NPS assumed full control, this dissertation explores the relationship between a community's sense of place or history and the creation - perhaps even invention or imagining - of some of America's first national monuments. I argue that there are three general cycles through which these sites progressed: periods of exploitation, ownership, and protection. In short, the possessive nature of natural and cultural resource exploitation (through early lumbering, ranching, pothunting, tourism, and the like) had the eventual effect of creating a sense of ownership of those resources, which, in turn, brought about the desire for their protection from exploitation and wholesale destruction. These shifts occurred as the people of Flagstaff developed a sense of place or history - a kind of intellectual ownership - through which Walnut Canyon, Wupatki, and Sunset Crater Volcano became an integral part of local, regional, and national identity. Each phase is therefore not mutually exclusive and changed only through the influence of external forces, like the federal government and the passage of legislation, but rather is part of a gradual process through which change is brought about on a number of levels - internal and external, local and national, individual and community-wide. The work that follows is based on a reading of the relevant literature in cultural resource management, as well as extensive research in period manuscript, newspaper, and photographic collections from Flagstaff to Washington, D.C. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2013

<p> The National Park Service&rsquo;s mission is to preserve and protect cultural heritage sites that have value to the American public. In the summer of 2016, I interned with Zion National Park Cultural Resource Program to conduct archaeological stabilization and preservation of a prehistoric site through public outreach. During my internship, I discovered the program did not adequately address imminent and long term needs to manage cultural resources threatened by human-caused disturbances. The lack of understanding towards prehistoric populations that lived in Zion Canyon and difficulties in past management practices contributed to increasing vulnerability to valued cultural resources. Discontinuous management practices throughout the park&rsquo;s history led to unknown, vulnerable cultural resources deteriorating due to natural and human-caused disturbances including erosion, vandalism, and neglect. Public archaeology and outreach contributed to a large portion of the project and I developed important procedures to include and train the public who find value in protecting and preserving cultural resources in our National Parks. </p><p> In this thesis, I examine cultural resource management practices at Zion National park pertaining to the stabilization and preservation of a prehistoric site and analyze data from the site to provide a more encompassing site history for future researchers and the development of management practices. The review of past management practices and regional prehistoric history will enable me to create better procedures for managing vulnerable cultural resources at Zion National Park. The management procedures will include best practices for initiating public outreach programs in order to include audiences beyond the archaeological community to help preserve and protect cultural heritage at our National Parks.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative case study took place in a racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse community. It involved interviewing 11 teacher volunteers from a high school in a culturally diverse community in New York, each at different stages of their teaching careers, to obtain their perceptions about the value of implementing culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in their instruction to enhance the learning opportunities of students from culturally diverse backgrounds. The broad objective of this inquiry was to seek ways of establishing a pedagogy appropriate for students from diverse backgrounds. The specific aim was to use teachers&rsquo; perceptions about implementing CRT techniques in their instruction to effectively satisfy the learning, academic achievement, and socioemotional health of their culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Participants responded to interview questions by completing and returning the interview questionnaire they were given. Five participants further participated by explaining more fully how they believed the CRT techniques they employed in delivering classroom instruction enhanced opportunities for the CLD students. The data collected from the responses of all participants were examined and sorted according to similarities and differences. The analysis of responses received by all teachers revealed they all agreed that CRT methods were the best approach for reaching and engaging CLD students in the classroom and thereby maximizing opportunities for them to attain success in their academic achievements, and for addressing their socio-emotional health. In addition, all teachers expressed support for more professional development (PD), especially in CRT on-going programs to enable them to be better educators of CLD students. The findings of the study implied that not all teachers were adequately trained to effectively teach students from diverse backgrounds. It is recommended that schools&rsquo; governing bodies institute PD programs with the specific aim of engaging all teachers in compulsory on-going involvement in the acquisition of skills required for addressing the needs and interests of CLD students. Schools&rsquo; officials should also create regular in-house workshops and lectures to keep teachers current with new CRT techniques recommended by the on-going research in the field.</p>

This thesis aims to understand how Manonnye Gorge in eastern Botswana can be sustainably managed as both a natural and cultural landscape. At issue are conflicting views over the meaning and legitimate uses of the Gorge by the National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery (NMMAG), tourists, and the community in Moremi, at the edge of the gorge. Regional survey in the gorge and ethnographic research with the Moremi community led to a more complex understanding of how conflicting perceptions of the gorge as a sacred cultural landscape by community members and as a natural monument by NMMAG have affected implementation of ecotourism projects. The thesis critiques the idea of the gorge as simply a natural monument and provides recommendations for reassessing management plans and ecotourism projects.

<p> The specific problem under study results from the growth of multinational workforces in U.S. hospitals and the gap in the literature explaining how the presence of these workforces impacts hospital leadership, decision-making, and financial performance. The purpose of this qualitative embedded multi-case study was to discover and describe hospital nursing leader&rsquo;s beliefs from their experiences about how having employees from multiple national cultures affects nursing leadership, decision-making, and departmental financial performance in the hospital. The challenge faced by many hospitals is that the U.S. workforce is becoming culturally diverse as the global workforce increases its geographical mobility. The current research was important because results revealed nurse leaders&rsquo; beliefs about a link between the cultural dimensions of a multinational workforce and the decision-making, financial performance, and patient care within a hospital nursing department. The sample included eight nursing leaders from seven hospitals where the workforces are multinational and culturally diverse. The cultural dimensions by Hofstede were used to study the impact of a multinational workforce on the organizational practices of a nursing department in a hospital setting. Results revealed nine core themes, expected from the literature, and two emerging themes provided answers to the research questions. The nine core themes were Hofstede&rsquo;s cultural dimensions, workforce values, nursing organization impact, immigration/migration, nursing leadership, nursing workforce, organization culture, change, and develop multicultural organization attributes. The two emerging themes were familismo (family loyalty influences multinational workforce decision making) and hospital refusal to hire multicultural nurses whose national culture conflict with the organization&rsquo;s culture.</p>

<p> The term "isolated find" has frequently been taken as a disposable artifact category in cultural resource management (CRM). Efforts were made to empirically demonstrate the fallacy of this concept and its use, using modified field sampling strategies, the inclusion of fine screen artifact analysis, and statistical analyses. Six sites containing prehistoric occupations on Camp McCain National Guard base in Grenada County, Mississippi were reinvestigated using these methods; their datasets were expanded in terms of site size, density, function, and temporal association, which may change their eligibility status for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Fieldwork and classification based solutions are offered to account for biases introduced by current standard methods of sampling and site delineation during Phase I archaeological survey. </p><p></p>

<p> Osseous tools are often recovered from coastal archaeological sites in Alaska due to favorable preservation conditions. In northwest Alaska, outside of harpoon typology, these osseous tools are not well analyzed. In 2008, the Office of History and Archaeology (OHA) excavated a multi-component site adjacent to the shore in Kotzebue, Alaska. Organic materials and lithic tools were recovered from three components dated to AD 600, AD 1200-1600, and within the last 300 years. The Shore Avenue collection extends the documented archaeological record of Kotzebue by nearly 750 years. Osseous tools and debitage consisted of 175 artifacts within the collection, while an abundant amount of archaeofauna provided a sample of raw materials available at the site for the manufacture of osseous tools.</p><p> This thesis focuses on the probability of raw materials being sourced locally, or through the use of long-distance travel, or trade, through an analysis of the archaeofauna from the Kotzebue Archaeological District, KTZ-036. Such analyses identified caribou antler as a locally-available raw materials for tool production. In contrast, walrus and ivory occurred in much lower frequencies. The archaeological findings were compared with contemporary harvest numbers by modern Native hunters from Kotzebue; the result corroborated the archaeofaunal inferences.</p><p> Analyses of the recovered osseous tools revealed a relatively high amount (26.3%) of ivory tools (n=23) and debitage (n=23) for what would be expected through the results of the faunal analysis where walrus made up only 4% (n=22) of the identified sea mammal remains. To determine potential contributing factors for this anomaly, the osseous tools were classified into functional and morphological groups to note possible trends within each group. This was coupled with a literature review of the structural and mechanical characteristics of the osseous materials to identify selective pressures for the manufacture of osseous tools that may push tool-makers to look beyond what is locally available.</p><p> Finally a cross-site comparison was completed of eight sites in the Arctic and Subarctic to reveal similarities of use in osseous materials spatially and temporally. Overall, it was determined that when the function of an osseous tool requires it to receive an applied force, a raw material is selected based on its properties that allow it to withstand the applied force. When few or no forces are applied to a tool, selection pressure relaxes, and any osseous material is used in manufacture. Aesthetics of ivory should also be considered, where sheen and carving detail can provide more artistic appeal. These trends are fairly consistent across the Arctic but should be considered in more depth to confirm this observation.</p>

<p> This phenomenological study examined the lived experience of 13 active mediators who conduct mediations between individuals of differing collectives (race, gender, age, religion, etc.). These mediators were volunteers, human resource professionals, or other external professionals utilized to assist in resolving workplace conflicts. They offered experience in corporate environments, state and federal government, school systems, and the community. </p><p> Study participants met the following criteria: (1) successfully completed the 40-hour mediation training; (2) conducted a minimum of 30 mediations over the past five years; (3) conducted a minimum of 10 diversity related mediations; and (4) experience with workplace conflicts.</p><p> As a phenomenological study, interviews were the method of data gathering. Following Merriam and Tisdale&rsquo;s (2016) interview structure continuum, data gathering occurred in two stages: highly structured/standardized and unstructured/informal. The first stage assessed the mediator&rsquo;s appropriateness for the study. The questions focused on the mediator&rsquo;s recent experience with conducting workplace and EEO mediations. The second stage was the detailed interview used to build an understanding of the lived experiences. Questions asked led to the understanding of the lived experiences of the mediators thereby supporting the research question.</p><p> Five conclusions emerged from the results of this study. (1) Communication that is poor or lacking is a major source of conflict. (2) Environmental changes have increased workplace diversity leading to more conflict. (3) Perceptions of fairness by authority and senior staff leading to conflict. (4) Parties who volunteer for mediation are more successful. (5) Mediators and the mediation process are not completely neutral.</p><p> Implications for theory are: the strengthening of the social identity literature by specifically identifying sources of conflict; expansion of the literature that explains the role management plays in conflict escalations; introduces a hybrid mediation style; and the expansion of trait theory literature by identifying which traits are prone to conflict. Recommendations for practice are workplace initiatives focusing on diversity and interpersonal skills; incremental training for mediators to ensure mediators practice in the spirit of neutrality; encouraging organizations to implement mediations for all conflicts prior to escalation of workplace chaos; and emphasizing the minimization of legal advice by licensed attorneys during mediations.</p><p>