Human beings are condemned to freedom, according to Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Every individual creates his or her own identity according to choice. Because we choose ourselves, each individual is also completely responsible for his or her actions. This responsibility causes anguish that leads human beings to avoid their freedom in bad faith. Bad faith is an attempt to deceive ourselves that we are less free than we really are. The primary condition of the racist is bad faith. In both aware/blatant and aware/covert racism, the racist in bad faith convinces himself that white people are, according to nature, superior to black people. The racist believes that stereotypes of black inferiority are facts. This is the justification for the oppression of black people. In a racist society, the bad faith belief of white superiority is institutionalized as a societal norm. Sartre is wrong to believe that all human beings possess absolute freedom to choose. The racist who denies that black people face limited freedom is blaming the victim, and victim blaming is the worst form of racist bad faith. Taking responsibility for our actions and leading an authentic life is an alternative to the bad faith of racism. / Graduation date: 2000

The increasing prevalence of marital breakdown in the United States has been met by the proliferation of premarital counseling programs in professional counseling centers and churches. As increasing masses of couples turn to premarital counseling to prevent future interpersonal problems, and as communities and churches across the United States deem it necessary to require them to do so, the rhetoric of premarital counseling, I argue, is becoming a significant force in constructing contemporary meanings of marriage. Utilizing rhetorical criticism as a new method for examining premarital counseling, this study addresses two key issues: a) the images of marriage constructed in these programs; and b) the process by which these images are created. An extensive analysis of two national programs, messages embodied in their counseling materials, themes, symbols, and clusters of terms that facilitate persuasion and epistemic functions. Applying a Burkean dramatistic perspective, I contend that a more complete understanding of premarital counseling is advanced if such discourse is treated as "drama" and the participates in such discourse as "symbol-using animals." The dramatistic analysis of both programs reveals that a "rhetoric of rebirth" best explains the process of persuasion that occurs in these programs. This research is an example of how premarital counseling programs can be analyzed from a fresh perspective--namely, premarital counseling as rhetoric. Such analysis ultimately leads to a new way of explaining how these programs attempt to modify couples' beliefs and actions. The last chapter summarizes the thesis, discusses the ethics of rhetoric in programs, as well as the limitations and contributions of the study and implications for future research. / Graduation date: 1997

My teaching experiences raised questions about the nature of literacy, especially about its relationship with education and schooling. Common sense, straightforward definitions of literacy failed to address those questions adequately, and that inadequacy led to the study which culminates in this thesis. In Pursuit of Literacy focuses on literacy in order to explore answers to those questions. It does so first by establishing a problematized understanding of literacy, then by examining research into the implications of such an understanding, and finally by analyzing the historical link between literacy and schooling in the United States with that understanding as a basis. This thesis arrives at its initial problematized understanding by considering historical and contemporary definitions of literacy and standards for measuring it, revealing that context plays a central role in these definitions and standards. This work then posits a literacy uncertainty principle, analogous to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in physics, emphasizing the definer's role and purpose as necessary elements in any understanding of literacy itself. A view of literacy as a contextualized human activity rather than an abstract and narrowly defined concept emerges from this problematization. This study then examines some implications of this view. Three metaphors commonly identified with literacy provide a basis for analyzing these implications. Finally, literacy as schooling, a fourth metaphor is considered in an historical context, tracing possible sources of confusion between the demands of schooling and those of literacy. The conclusions drawn here help clarify the relationship between schools and literacy. / Graduation date: 1995

This working paper was originally printed in the Working Paper Series of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1906. / Includes index. Bibliography: p. [481]-505. Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia university, 1921. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. [347]-352. Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 293-308). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kansas, History, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-275). Also available on the Internet.

The U.S. white wheat industry relies heavily on export markets. Since the early 1960s these markets have been geographically concentrated in a few countries in Asia. This suggests that developments in a few Asian countries may significantly affect the prospects for U.S. white wheat exports and thereby the economic well being of the U.S. white wheat production-consumption system. However, very few studies have been undertaken of the U.S. white wheat market in these Asian countries. The objective of this study is to analyze and evaluate the effects of variations in: U.S. white wheat price, income, domestic wheat production, the availability of other food grains, shipments of U.S. white wheat under P.L. 480 programs, imports of Australian standard (white) wheat, and exchange rates on the Japanese and Korean import demand for U.S. white wheat. Three short-run empirical models of the U.S.-Japan- Korea market for U.S. white wheat are estimated by fitting regression curves using annual data over the period 1963-1964 to 1980-1981. The results of the study indicate that an inelastic import demand curve for U.S. white wheat is present in both Japan and Korea. This finding along with other evidence suggest that both the Japanese and Korean governments have greatly distorted the Japanese and the Korean import demand for U.S. white wheat. In the Japanese case, import demand for U.S. white wheat is strongly affected by domestic (soft) wheat production as well as the quantity imported of Australian standard (white) wheat. Per capita real income, the quantity of rice available, and the real exchange rate (as an interaction with average shipping costs paid in U.S. dollars), however, did not meaningfully affect the Japanese purchases of U.S. white wheat. In the Korean case, import demand for U.S. white wheat is closely associated with the quantity of rice available, the amount of U.S. white wheat imports under P.L. 480 programs, the quantity of barley available and Korean per capita real income. On the other hand, domestic (soft) wheat production and the real exchange rate (as defined earlier) did not meaningfully affect the Korean purchases of U.S. white wheat. / Graduation date: 1983

The objective of the study is to analyze empirically the demand for hired farm labor and the elasticities of substitution of capital for labor in the U.S., the Middle Atlantic region, the Pacific region, and in the states of California and Oregon. The data period 1941-1969 was analyzed for the U.S., the data period 1949-1969 was analyzed for the Middle Atlantic region and the Pacific region, and the data period 1951-1970 was analyzed for Oregon. This latter period, represents the full available data history for Oregon. This study shows that the demand for hired farm labor with respect to the real wage is elastic in the short run in the Middle Atlantic region and in the state of Oregon. The short run demand elasticity with respect to real wage for the U.S. ranges from -0.529 to -0.663. This range is significant at the 1 percent level. For Middle Atlantic and Pacific regions, the wage elasticities are -2.140 and -1.371, respectively. Both are significant at the 1 percent level. The short run wage elasticity for Oregon ranges from -1.64 to -2.58 which is significant at the 10 percent level. A study of one sector of farming, the demand of seasonal hired farm labor in harvesting pears, Jackson County, Oregon, finds that the short run elasticity with respect to wage rate for this sector is -1.769 which is significant at the 10 percent level. This study also shows that the elasticity of substitution of capital for hired farm labor in Oregon is greater than the rate for the Nation, for the Middle Atlantic region, and for California. The elasticities of substitution of capital for hired farm labor for the Nation, the Middle Atlantic region, the Pacific region, California and Oregon are 1.449, 1.692, 0.595, 0.429, and 1.938, respectively. They are all significant at the 5 percent level except for California which is significant at the 10 percent level. The result of this study will be useful for agricultural policy formulation. The demand for hired farm labor with respect to the real wage is elastic for the Middle Atlantic region, the Pacific region, and Oregon in both the short and long runs. In the long run it will be elastic at the National level. This means that the number of hired farm workers declines proportionally more than the wage rate increases. With the knowledge of the readiness of capital for substituting for hired farm laborers, any increase in real wage would increase the rate of substitution of capital for hired farm labor. This in turn would result in a reduction of total income and number for hired farm workers. Only those with special skills and high job security would benefit from such a policy. / Graduation date: 1972