The purpose of this study was to utilize the dual frameworks of Body-Centered Constructivism and Lived Religion to analyze the work of contemporary photojournalists and documentary photographers. Interviews were conducted with a targeted selection of professional and non-professional photojournalists whose experiences and work were relevant to the Body-Centered Constructivist framework. Informants were asked to comment on how physical factors including but not limited to new photographic technologies affected the use of their bodies while on assignment, their interpretation of stories, and their relationships with their subjects. Next, visual analyses of works of photojournalism were conducted using a Lived Religion framework. These works were selected based on their relevance to the research questions presented, namely how photojournalists approach the mundane in coverage of religious stories. An additional creative component operated as a case study for applying each framework to a work of visual journalism. Various media were employed based on relationships fostered between the media, the photographer’s body, and the subjects. Reflections and conclusions based on this project are included.

A descriptive, phenomenological research design was used to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and meaning of couples’ experiences as they made the transition to parenthood. Specifically, this study examined what is the lived experience of couples making the transition to parenthood and what meaning do they ascribed to the experience of brief, couple-focused, preventative interventions? Five couples who were expecting their first baby participated in this study. From the data provided, two major categories emerged. The first was the couples’ experiences with becoming new parents and the second was the couples’ experiences with therapy. Under the first category, five major themes emerged: (1) physical and emotional challenges, (2) bonding with baby, (3) satisfaction in roles and new identity, (4) impact of social support, and (5) stability of relationship satisfaction. Three themes were discovered under the category related to the couples’ experience with therapy: (1) facilitated communication, (2) stress management, and (3) preparation for the transition. This study concluded by discussing the essence of the phenomenon of couples’ experiences with the transition to parenthood and the meaning they ascribed to therapeutic interventions along with clinical implications of these findings.

ABSTRACT In loosely structured narrative interviews, individuals discussed their personal religious life stories in the context of their lives, from childhood to the present. They ended up creating coherent narratives that encompassed much more than their religious traditions. The coherency of their stories was through the use of dispositions. Dispositions are the common themes, people, or other narrative schema which the narrator used consistently throughout the story, and are identified by narrative elements that repeat and anchor the narrative. Dispositions found in interviews for the Religious Life Stories Project by the GSU Religious Studies Department include familial, outlier, socioeconomic, contributive, influential, obedient, somatic, and traveler. Analysis of the dipositions in the context of these narratives illuminates the variety of ways traditional religion manifests in individuals’ lives. Furthermore, dispositions provide a theoretical basis for studying individual religion comparatively across doctrinal religious traditions.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Irish people on a rural location practice their faith in everyday life. The intention is also to find out what strategies my interviewees use to negotiate the abuse scandal and what their thoughts on the Catholic Church are. The material mainly consists of interviews with seven people part of a rural parish in Ireland. My research also entails smaller observations and conversations in the homes of the participants. The results indicate that they all consider themselves religious, however not all Catholic. All of the participants integrate their religion in everyday life. It also showed that almost all of them used a certain strategy when negotiating the knowledge of the abuse scandal leaving just one participant saying it negatively affected his faith. My results show that all of them are asking for changes within the Catholic Church when it comes to celibacy, ordaining women and same sex marriages. The results of my study are analyzed with Meredith McGuire’s theory on lived religion and Peter Berger’s theory on socialization and secularization. Religious activity is occurring in my participants’ everyday life and church-based practices such as Mass or Confessions are not as important for them as for instance prayer and humility. It also shows that my participants are socialized into Catholicism but that the Church no longer can serve as a sole legitimating power and is being severely questioned. I would also argue that today’s modern society with different religions and expressions has led to my participants questioning of the Church. In the location I have studied the results show that individuals let religion into their everyday lives and create their own version of it. With these results I would argue that my participants allow religion to influence their everyday tasks and create their own religious practice. The results suggest that my participants are indeed part of a secularization process, the objective secularization which separates the Church and state. However, religion is still alive within the subjectivity of my participants.

Becoming Expatriate Entrepreneurs: A Phenomenological Exploration of Entrepreneuring in Taiwan The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of an important but under-researched domain of expatriate entrepreneurs¡¦ lived-experience. Heideggerian existential-phenomenology of being-in-the-world was explored as an alternative, departing from the dominant mainstream economic, personality, and behavioral perspectives in entrepreneurship and migration research. Through the phenomenological inquiry, four themes emerged from the expatriate entrepreneurs cases in Taiwan. These intriguing themes are a) adapting and engaging in the local context by enterprising, b) entrepreneuring as brokering in diverse contexts, c) the mutuality of business ventures: Co-creating with the localpreneurs, and d) constructing an entrepreneurial identity, which contribute to both migration and entrepreneurship research. Furthermore, it is proposed that the expatriate entrepreneurial becoming could be understood as situated entrepreneuring which illustrates connecting past and present, connecting to the new context, and also connecting to the material world. Finally, Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications, as well as potential areas for the pursuit of a wide array of further inquires in the field of expatriate, migration and entrepreneurship, are identified. . Keywords: Expatriate Entrepreneur, Migration, Phenomenology, Lived Experience, Situated Entrepreneuring, Taiwan

This dissertation presents the results of the first search for heavy, neutral, longlived particles that decay to photons at a hadron collider. We use a sample of +jet+missing transverse energy events in p¯p collisions at ps = 1.96 TeV taken with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Candidate events are selected based on the arrival time of a high-energy photon at the electromagnetic calorimeter as measured with a timing system that was recently installed. The final result is that we find 2 events, using 570±34 pb−1 of data collected during 2004-2005 at the Fermilab Tevatron, consistent with the background estimate of 1.3±0.7 events. While our search strategy does not rely on model-specific dynamics, we interpret this result in terms of cross section limits in a supersymmetric model with e01! eG and set a world-best e01 mass reach of 101 GeV/c2 at e = 5 ns. We can exclude any +jet+missing transverse energy signal that would produce more than 5.5 events.

The concept of liminality describes the experiences of individuals who live "between and betwixt" as a result of their indeterminate status in society. This concept seems appropriate to describe the experiences of people who live with vision loss, because we simultaneously belong to two social or cultural groups. On the one hand we must navigate the mainstream society in which we live day to day, which we are often able to do with the vision we have left. On the other hand, our disability sets us apart from that mainstream society. This idea of living in "between and betwixt" the worlds of the blind and the sighted was the personal challenge that motivated me to pursue this autobiographic research through a heuristic framework. With heuristic research, the researcher is involved in the study as a first participant or co-researcher. The purpose of this heuristic research study was to describe and explain the graduate school experiences of a selected group of graduate students who have visual disabilities in order to help me better understand my own experiences and identity as a graduate student with a visual disability. My exploratory questions that guided this study were: 1. How do I, as a student with a visual disability, perceive and describe my social and academic experiences in graduate school? 2. How do other graduate students who have visual disabilities perceive and describe their social and academic experiences in graduate school? 3. What barriers and challenges do we as graduate students with visual disabilities encounter in graduate school? 4. What factors empower us as students with visual disabilities to achieve success in graduate school? Employing heuristic research methods, I conducted responsive interviews with three purposefully selected co-researchers who also provided related documents for my review. Alternating periods of immersion and incubation, I examined the data in order to develop an individual depiction for each co-researcher, a group depiction, a detailed portrait of one of the co-researchers, and a creative synthesis that expressed my emerging self-understanding through an artistic approach. This creative synthesis captures my improved appreciation for my liminal status as something to be celebrated rather than overcome. Analysis of the data yielded a number of common barriers or challenges faced by the co-researchers. These included a continuing lack of accessibility for both instructional materials and online content management systems, as well as feelings of social isolation, especially in relation to their non-disabled peers. To overcome these challenges, the co-researchers relied on the supportive relationships of their family members, their major professors and other staff within their departments. The co-researchers' personal characteristics of perseverance, resilience and resourcefulness also played a key role in their success, as did their ability to reframe their disabilities into a positive aspect of their lives. This reframing of their disabilities, along with their personal strengths, allowed the co-researchers to emerge as powerful advocates for themselves over the course of their graduate studies.

Introduction: Women possess characteristics and experiences unique and different from men. Menstruation, pregnancy, puberty and menopause may present challenges for self-management, a prerequisite for those living with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The meaning and experiences of self-management have not been adequately explored from a young woman’s perspective within the diabetes literature. Purpose of the Study: Blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values are keys for determining success in self-management among individuals living with T1DM; however, the values may enable feelings of vulnerability and worthlessness in individuals living with T1DM. Through learning about the experiences of young women, it was hoped that the meaning of self-management would be uncovered. The research question was: What are the experiences of self-management among young women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus? Methods and Methodology: Descriptive phenomenology was used to uncover the experiences of self-management. Unstructured interviews with nine young women aged 22-30 years were conducted to uncover their lived experience. Data collection and analysis followed the methodical structure outlined by van Manen (1997). Findings: Data analysis revealed five themes, and the essence of participants’ self-management experiences. Identified themes included: 1) elusiveness of control; 2) the dualism of technology; 3) forecasting and establishing routines; 4) dealing with the “ups and downs”; and, 5) interface with the health care team. The essence that emerged from the data was “being in balance”. Conclusions: Self-management encompassed the desire and need to be in balance with one’s life and blood glucose levels. Self-management was something that evolved over time, and grew in complexity as phases progressed; it was something participants were still trying to grasp. Individual attitudes, goals, and self-management strategies dominated participants’ discourse in describing their hope of achieving and sustaining balance in their day-to-day lives. / Thesis (Master, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-24 18:35:33.911

A qualitative phenomenological study using van Manen’s human science method was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients and their family members transitioning through one hundred days post haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Three families between zero and five years post HSCT were recruited from a bone marrow transplant unit in central Canada. Multiple in-depth open-ended interviews and field notes were employed to arrive at a detailed description of the lived experience of patients and family members. Awakening from the cocoon emerged as the main essence of patient’s and family members’ experiences, supported by three themes: the disruptions, the chrysalis, and new beginnings. The results from this study provide evidence that the families viewed the HSCT in a positive perspective and highlight the importance of supporting families throughout the acute phase of transplantation.

A qualitative phenomenological study incorporating Photovoice was conducted to gain insight into the lived experience of patients with end-stage heart failure (ESHF). Seven participants were recruited and in-depth open-ended interviews were conducted with all participants. Three of the seven informants also opted to take part in the Photovoice portion of the project. “Working to preserve a sense of self” emerged as the essence of living with ESHF and was supported by three themes: i) the work of managing a failing and unreliable body, ii) the work of choreographing daily living; and iii) the work of charting the final chapter of one’s life. The findings from this study provide healthcare professionals with empirically grounded information and insights about the needs and everyday challenges individuals living with ESHF experience, and how clinicians can best support them. Such information is essential in order to plan meaningful, holistic, evidence-based care for ESHF patients.