Mountaineering is not typically considered an academic subject. Nor is there much scholarship on the sport, let alone its history in the state with the smallest population, Alaska. Yet through analysis of the sport, deeper connections in the relationship between humans and the environment, the history of colonizing both indigenous peoples and land, and the place of gender and sport in Alaska come to light. Mountaineers that traveled to Alaska in the late 19th century and early 20th century were some of the first advocates for protecting its land, yet also displayed their imperialist and masculine values in the mountains. The effects of these approaches to climbing structurally excluded women and furthered the project of colonizing the land by both physically and metaphorically claiming the peaks of mountains for the nation. Their climbing also contributed to the idea that humans conquered nature; by dominating the peaks these climbers saw themselves in a battle with nature, and reaching the summit was their victory. As World War II hit Alaska, new approaches to climbing surfaced, reflecting both the spirit of war time in Alaska and the resulting population boom. Organized through the branches of climbing and environmental clubs, women began to participate with a distinctly female culture of climbing. Women sometimes expressed views of the union between humans and nature, and men also organized as environmental protectors due to their experiences in the mountains. Yet as this thesis will point out, in viewing nature and humans as separate mountaineers encouraged the view that Alaska and its land were a wilderness resource for recreation, rather than a land to act in community towards. This thesis attempts to complicate the sport of mountaineering, documenting the ways people climbed and the different meanings they embedded in their climbing activity.

Vaccinations were noted as the top public health achievement in the 20th century (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1999). However, not everyone is getting vaccinated. Taking a sociological approach this study examined the extent to which African Americans, American Indian/Alaska Natives, and Latino populations received an influenza vaccination compared to whites at a micro and macro level from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Previous research on racial and ethnic health disparities, attitudinal difference, and other demographic characteristics are reviewed in the literature. The Behavioral Model of Health Services was employed as the theoretical framework for this study. The methods consisted of three levels of analysis beginning with multivariate logistic regression at the individual level, least squares dummy variable modeling (LSDV), and hierarchical logistic regression modeling to incorporate aggregate data from the 50 United States. The results from the logistic regression show African Americans and Latino respondents have lesser odds of receiving the flu vaccine compared to whites after controlling for medical costs, access to health care, and a variety of socio-demographic characteristics. Results also show American Indian/Alaska Natives had greater odds of receiving the flu vaccine compared to whites after introducing similar control variables. Least Squares Dummy Variable Modeling controlled for the effects states have on receiving a flu vaccine. The results presented were African Americans and Latinos have significant lesser odds of receiving the flu vaccine compared to whites. While American Indian/Alaska Natives had greater odds of receiving a flu vaccine compared to whites, statistical significance was lost once states were used as control variables. It was also found 13 states had greater odds and 13 states had lesser odds of receiving the flu vaccine compared to North Dakota. Hierarchical logistic regression models examined the influence of state level covariates on the odds of individuals receiving the flu vaccine, and the results indicated that African Americans and Latinos had lesser odds of receiving an influenza vaccine compared to whites, but American Indian/Alaska Natives were found to have greater odds compared to whites, with the results not being statistically significant. The implications of these results are discussed.

The present study examines the extent to which blacks are segregated in the suburban community of Coconut Grove, Florida. Hypersegregation, or the general tendency for blacks and whites to live apart, was examined in terms of four distinct dimensions: evenness, exposure, clustering, and concentration. Together, these dimensions define the geographic traits of the target area. Alone these indices can not capture the multi-dimensional levels of segregation and, therefore, by themselves underestimate the severity of segregation and isolation in this community. This study takes a contemporary view of segregation in a Dade County community to see if segregation is the catalyst to the sometime cited violent response of blacks. This study yields results that support the information in the literature review and the thesis research questions sections namely, that the blacks within the Grove do respond violently to the negative effects that racial segregation causes. This thesis is unique in two ways. It examines segregation in a suburban environment rather than an urban inner city, and it presents a responsive analysis of the individuals studied, rather than relying only on demographic and statistical data.

Children who live within the U.S. military community have unique experiences. In addition to the foundational processes related to child development, military-dependent youths are subject to military specific stressors (MSS) such as frequent relocation, adjustment to new school environments, and parental separation due to deployment. Some research suggests these experiences build resiliency, whereas others suggest they undermine it. Due to these mixed findings there is a gap in the research. This study examines the extent to which military stressors are associated with attachment insecurity, and whether these links are dependent on the military dependent youth’s perception of their mother’s degree of nurturing behavior during times of stress. We expect that the positive association between MSS and attachment insecurity will be weakened when individuals report higher maternal nurturance. As data collection is not yet complete, preliminary results will be shared at the conference. Estimated date of completion is March 1, 2019.

Immigrant communities are a part of every city and town in the United States. Sentiments towards immigrants, however, continue to vary, but in recent years, anti-immigrant sentiments have become more widely encountered, especially because of the recent presidential election (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2016). A lack of knowledge and representation of diverse cultures, along with recurring negative rhetoric, may influence how immigrant populations are received. This report argues that acknowledging culture and heritage can strengthen cultural bonds, create and celebrate a unique city identity, and improve cultural representation. The City of Westfield, Massachusetts, located in Hampden County, will be studied in this report. Amongst the several immigrant communities in the city, the Polish population is one that is present, but underrepresented. Through participant interviews, elements of place attachment, cultural representation, and cultural values will be studied. This research hopes to encourage greater cultural representation by enhancing place attachment and representation for present and future immigrant residents. This report will also aim to contribute to the greater studies and literature surrounding cultural planning by examining the importance of culture and heritage in the planning field and offering recommendations.

Extralocal organizations and agencies have increasingly entered into the business of creative place-making—a strategy they use to encourage economic development. One such cultural development strategy is formal cultural district programs implemented by state agencies in cities and towns. While the use of art and culture as a tool for generating revenue is well-documented, less is known about the perspective of local actors—how they understand cultural district programs as a strategy to shape their place and what ways they negotiate the logics and strategies imposed on them from extralocal organizations. The Massachusetts Cultural District Program supports communities in their efforts to attract artists and cultural enterprises, encourage business and job development, establish tourist destinations, and enhance property values. In two Massachusetts cultural districts, I explore the “public” and “hidden transcripts” of state and local actors as pertains to their use of art and culture for fashioning locales as destinations and economic engines, on the one hand, and as places that respond to the wants and needs of the community on the other. Analysis of field notes from participant observations and in-depth interviews indicates a mismatch between the local and state logics that govern cultural districts—particularly around definitions of culture, place, and success. To cope with these mismatching cultural development logics, local actors find ways to harmonize with, modify, and circumvent extralocal logics to meet their own community goals. While these findings show that locales are not simply at the mercy of extralocal actors implementing their programs, they also expose opportunities for local actors to lead the policy conversation with their own logics and strategies.

This study examined the experiences of white, low-income high school students completing their senior year in a rural community and earning their diplomas. The purpose of the study was to examine participants’ stories during high school using a community cultural wealth framework and narrative methodological approach. Results showed that students utilized capitals such as social, moral, familial and resistant in their small communities. Multiple capitals interacted and influenced each other as rural youth draw on these for support.

The present phenomenological study explores the experiences of ethnic minority students at John Brown University. The study includes 25 interviews with undergraduate ethnic minority students. The findings from this study show minority students have an overall positive response to their experience at a private, Christian institution. Additionally, participants experienced a variety of challenges which included feeling less than, lacking connection, and feeling isolated. Lastly, the researchers noted what was necessary for minority students to succeed at this university, which included support from faculty, staff, and organizations. The most important finding from the study was that minority students need a sense of belonging to succeed at John Brown University.

The study examined the relationships between subjects' degree of alienation and descriptions of their behaviors. The subjects were 42 male, senior students at Benson Polytechnic High School who attended one of two required social science classes. Benson High School is an all male, technical high school which admits students from all parts of the City of Portland, Oregon. Alienation was defined as a syndrome of feelings consisting of apathy, distrust, pessimism, cynicism, and emotional distance. The degree of subjects' alienation, as defined, was measured by the Multiple Alienation Measure devised by Dr. Laurence J. Gould. Subjects' were thereby divided into three alienation groups: high alienation, moderate alienation, and low alienation. School personnel described subjects' behaviors by selection of descriptions from a questionnaire. Two counselors described subjects' engagement in extra-curricular activities in terms of (1) whether they were inactive, (2) active in sports or other extra-curricular activities only, or (3) active in both sports and other extra-curricular activities. Two teachers described subjects' involvement in their social science classes in terms of (1) whether they did well in assigned work and did extra work, (2) did well in assigned work only, (3) or did not do well in assigned work. The vice-principal described the conduct of subjects in terms of whether they were (1) well behaved, (2) had problems that were handled in the classroom, (3) had problems for which they were sent to the office and, perhaps, suspended once, or (4) had problems for which they had been suspended more than once. A positive relationship was found between the degree of alienation and the degree of conduct problems as described by the vice-principal. This relationship was significant at the .05 level by a chi-square test. No relationships were found between the degree of alienation and extracurricular activities and behavior in social science classes. However, the alienated were described by teachers as either unmotivated or very motivated students. A tendency for the alienated to be described by the extreme statements concerning activities also appeared. The findings of the study were interpreted by a theory developed in the introduction and in the concluding chapter of the thesis. The theory presented the alienation process as an interaction of the individual and his social world in which difficulties in the formation of identity result in a tension expressed by the feelings measured as alienation by the Multiple Alienation Measure. The tension gives rise to intense and, often extreme attempts to explore the social world in order to establish identity, or to a lapse into apathy. The greater conduct problems of the highly alienated was seen as a result of the intense activity of the search for identity. The highly alienated subjects' tendency to be either very good or poor students was seen as an intense, and therefore, extreme drive to resolve alienation tension by embracing the student role or by rejecting it.

The research problem of this thesis is an examination of inter-bureau power relations. A modification of Max Weber’s classical ideal type bureaucracy is the conceptual model to which sociological analysis is made. An empirical examination of the variance between the conceptual model and data collected in the field is analyzed in order to illustrate inter-bureau power relations. The analysis of the conceptual model is based upon three assertions. They are: (1) inter-bureau power relations are based upon coercion and not cooperation; (2) normative standards that are established by the administrators of the bureaucracy are differentially enforced; and (3) goals that are established by the administrators of the bureaucracy are subject to distortion. Participant-observation and casual interviewing techniques were the methods employed to collect data pertaining to the nature of inter-bureau power relations over a nine month period. The research problem lent itself to a qualitative approach in that the data were largely subjective and required recording over a period of time. The data collected were primarily a result of participant-observation conducted while an employee of the bureaucracy studies. Additional information was collected and analyzed from documents related to the functioning of the bureaucracy. Permission was sought and received, from the bureaucracy and related organizations studies, to use the data collected. This study found that the Weberian styled conceptual model, representing the authority hierarchy of the bureaucracy studied, was theoretically based upon cooperation, rationality, logic and equalitarian principles. Maintaining the Weberian styled authority hierarch had become ideology to the administrators of the bureaucracy. The existence and operation of this particular hierarchy was made to matter of public record, thus satisfying the political aspects of public accountability. However, it was found that there were other organizational hierarchies that the administrators of the bureaucracy utilized in performing the operation functions of the bureaucracy. For the purposes of this thesis the “other” authority hierarchies were known as working models. The authority hierarchies of the working models seems to be operationally based upon the concepts of coercion, differential enforcement of normative standards, and distortion of administrators’ goals. A unique characteristic of the working models was that they were quasi-secret, and virtually no public records were kept of their existence of operation.