The aim of this thesis is to study the multidimensional relation between the spatial and the social by focusing on Van as a place. In order to understand social processes, it is important to view the complex relation between the spatial and the social. Taking the space-place relation into consideration, this work approaches to the processes of construction and representation of identity of place in the framework of the interrelation between place, culture and identity. Different groups in society are in a constant contestation over the construction of the meaning and the identity of place. This work, studies how place is constituted both materially and imaginarily within this contestation process. Senses of place and the meanings given to places are formed by social, cultural, economical and political situations of the people. Consequently this thesis, discusses the contestation over the representation and the use of place in the context of social, cultural, economical, political processes and power relations. It considers the dynamics which are effective on the constitution of image of Van. It studies the influences of these dynamics on the construction, the use, the transformation and the reproduction of place through the cultural practices of different groups in the city. This thesis, researches the relation between place and culture, the everyday life practices of different groups and the process of production of meaning through these practices.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008. / In recent years, more studies are exploring how contextual factors may influence mate preferences. Based on social learning theory, power, attitudes towards egalitarian gender roles, and type of mating were expected to influence women's romantic preferences for physical attractiveness and for resources. An online questionnaire was administered to a community sample and data analyses were employed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). Results showed that, as women's power increased, women showed increased preferences for physical attractiveness and sexiness in potential short-term mates and increased preference for intelligence in potential long-term mates. Power and attitudes were also found to be significant in predicting women's preferences for physical attractiveness relative to potential earning capacity in both short-term and long-term mating conditions. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-92). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / 92 leaves, bound 29 cm

In Renaissance culture there was an iconographic and literary language of trees, related to the motif of the tree of life, an ancient symbol of immortality associated with paradise. The properties of trees were used to express a range of ideas, including the death and resurrection of Christ, the fall and regeneration of political regimes, and virtue and vice within the individual soul. The juxtaposition of the tree of knowledge with the tree of life, as motifs of sterility and fertility, expressed aspects of the human condition and constructions of spiritual history and destiny. This thesis explores the language of trees in visual art and a range of English Renaissance texts from the late-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century: two plays by Shakespeare, two country-house poems, and a prose treatise on growing fruit-trees. Each of the writers drew on arboreal metaphors and motifs in unique and innovative ways. However there are numerous parallels and connections between the texts, and with contemporary and antecedent visual art, to justify considering these works together. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus (1594) Lavinia, when she has her hands cut off, is metaphorically described as a tree with lopped branches and linked with the stricken political entity of Rome. Shakespeare evokes the tree of virtue, the classical myth of Daphne, and the arboreal language of virtue and vice. In the late tragicomedy Cymbeline (1610), the king is symbolized in a dream vision as a tree, with its cut branches representing the princes who are initially stolen but then reunited with the king. The tree represents the family tree as well as the political state, two interlinked concepts in the play and in contemporary iconography and ideology. Since Cymbeline’s reign heralded the Nativity, the prophecy of the lopped and regenerated tree invokes the idea of Christ as the tree of life and the fruit of the tree of Jesse. In both plays, Shakespeare’s tree imagery comments on the exercise of political power and the resultant health of the state. Shakespeare’s contemporary Aemilia Lanyer wrote “The Description of Cooke-ham” (1611), part of a published volume of poetry entitled Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. In the poem she imagines a prominent tree on the estate as the tree of life. An abstract metaphor is envisaged as part of the physical landscape. The motif transforms the estate to sacred terrain, enabling her to claim access to a space she is otherwise excluded from by class and gender. Lanyer links the sap from the tree of life with her writing, seeking to legitimize her claim as a female poet. Such strategies are part of her bid for patronage from the Countess of Cumberland, her primary dedicatee. In another country-house poem, Andrew Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax” (1651), the poet creates a forest of the mind in which he explores different aspects of the language of trees. The speaker imagines himself encircled by vines and crucified by thorns, in imitation of Christ as the tree of life, while a fallen oak tree suggests the regicide. He takes on various roles including that of the enigmatic Green Man. I place Marvell’s imagery in the context of the Civil War and the relationship with his employer Lord Fairfax. Marvell’s exploration of arboreal motifs also subjects Christian tree of life imagery to the challenge of its pagan antecedents and reflects anxieties over the natural processes that threaten metaphors of regeneration. Lastly, in Ralph Austen’s A Treatise of Fruit-trees and Spiritual Use of an Orchard (1653), the author blends advice on horticultural practices in growing fruit-trees with religious metaphors. For Austen, gardening is both a physical and a metaphysical pursuit. His readers are expected to plant fruit-trees in orchards that evoke the idea of Christ as the tree of life and related ideas. His use of the motif is part of his advocacy of agricultural and social reform, motivations that were part of those in the circle surrounding Samuel Hartlib. Austen’s text is situated at the end of the English Renaissance and at the beginnings of the Scientific Revolution, when emblematic and symbolic frameworks for interpreting the natural world were subject to new pressures derived from empirical and rationalistic outlooks. What becomes apparent from these works is that tree metaphors were literalized, just as they had been in visual art, and given a new naturalism as they were projected onto landscapes. Symbolic trees merged with botanical trees in imagined landscapes, creating hybrid terrains that were both descriptive and mythical. Recognition of the language of trees in Renaissance culture opens up new readings of both canonical and lesser-known texts and highlights the porous disciplinary border between literature and art. Our historical readings are richer for understanding the potent language of trees. Overall the thesis highlights the importance and cultural preoccupation with trees in European visual and literary traditions.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in New Zealand men and the second highest cause of male deaths. This Heideggerian study explores the experience of six men, with prostate cancer: five of whom were approximately five months post a robotic prostatectomy and one man post brachytherapy. The purpose of the study is to understand and describe the meaning men attach to the disease using a hermeneutic existential phenomenological approach to research. Four themes emerged from the interviews: 1) Disappointment, 2) Being-a-man, 3) Sense of Control, and 4) Life-Threatening Disease. The findings of the study suggest men's identities changed due to the side effects of treatments, the need of a sense of control to deal with the disease, and the importance of understanding prostate cancer as a potentially life-threatening disease within the Heideggerian concept of "being-towards-death". Using this concept future research was also identified. The outcomes of the study suggest implications for health professionals in promoting existential care to the men by listening and taking into account their concerns.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Typescript. Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-195).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Union Institute & University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-177).

Diss. Linköping : Univ.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2005.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [77]).