<p> One of the most sought after abilities in matriculating engineering students is the ability to negotiate cultural differences and build sustainable partnerships with others. This core attribute of the National Academy of Engineers' Engineer of 2020 is one of the least researched areas in engineering education literature. The ABET Engineering Accreditation Committee requires engineering programs to addresses this need in student outcomes "(g) an ability to communicate effectively, (h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context, and (i) a recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning". The essential learning outcomes of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) requires that graduating students be able to use practical and intellectual skills to address contemporary and enduring issues with a core component of this being the ability to communicate with diverse others to negotiate shared meanings. These qualities are foundational requirements for engineers' sustained participation in the diverse, multinational workforce where teaming, design, and innovation are imperative. </p><p> Current research efforts in this area use a cacophony of terms to describe these qualities within the engineering education literature. This creates silos of research and inhibits collaborative conversations. This research seeks to negotiate shared meaning through the following two goals to aid in quieting the din. 1) To offer a term with generative promise for the inclusive practice of engineering. 2) To provide a multi-dimensional portrait of the ways first-year engineering students communicate and make meaning around cultural differences. The first goal is considered through the lens of Politically Attentive Relational Constructionism. This research explores terms and associated theories by considering their histories and the opportunities they offer for the inclusive practice of engineering. Generative promise of the terms was considered based upon how they accounted for the communicative nature of understanding of otherness, the relational nature of the negotiation of meaning, the political nature of encounters with cultural others, the historical and socio-cultural context of encounters, and whether these attributes are considered in the context of a bio-psycho-socio-cultural developmental continuum. The term cultural humility defined as "the lifelong, geopolitically situated, developmental process of negotiating cultural difference in the creation of sustainable, mutually beneficial as defined by all participants, partnerships" has the most opportunity for educational practices. The second goal is reached by taking a mixed-methods approach to locate first-year engineering students within the developmental continuum. The quantitative portrait of first-year students used both the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale - Short (M-GUDS-s) and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). IDI results revealed that first-year students as a cohort are in polarization. The qualitative montage provides an understanding of how first-year students communicate their experiences with cultural others using polarizing and minimizing language. Collectively these studies establish a starting point from which engineering educators can begin a collaborative effort in creating evidence based practices to engage first-year students in this lifelong process.</p>

<p> Proper hand hygiene is the most effective and efficient method to prevent over 1.3 million deaths annually from diarrheal disease and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs). Hand hygiene is also indispensable in achieving the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce the childhood mortality rate by 2/3rds between 1990 and 2015. Handwashing has been found in a systematic review of studies to reduce diarrhea by 47% and is, thus, capable of preventing a million deaths (Curtis et. al., 2003). Despite this evidence, hand washing rates remain seriously low in the developing world (Scott et al., 2008). </p><p> This study developed and implemented a comprehensive monitoring strategy of five usage variables (i.e., soap usage, functionality, presence of cleansing agent, ground wetness under station, amount of water in the jug) for 42-64 appropriate technology handwashing stations. These stations were monitored throughout 2011-2013 in two communities in Mali, West Africa. Statistically significant (p &lt; 0.05) results include: 1) a 29% decrease in soap usage from dry (October&ndash;June) to rainy seasons (July&ndash;September), 2) 35% decrease in stations with presence of cleansing agent between 2011 and 2012, 3) higher station usage for stations in households with higher scores on the Progress out of Poverty Index^&reg;, 4) 27% less of the stations far from a water source (35 meters&ndash;172 meters away) had a cleansing agent present than stations close to a water source (less than 35 meters) during the rainy season. Station usage also differed based on gender of the handwashing station owner in the two communities where stations built by women were used more in Zeala than those in Nci'bugu. In contrast to Zeala, handwashing stations built by men in Nci'bugu had higher soap usage and usage variable proportions than those built by women. Handwashing training and promotions resulted in 98% of households reporting that they wash their hands with soap in 2012 from 0% in 2011. Altogether, this study designed and implemented a robust monitoring system that succeeded in quantifying handwashing station usage for over two years. In-depth analysis of the data established six sustainability factors for handwashing stations (gender, training, water, seasonality, wealth, and monitoring) that are critical for lasting handwashing behavior change and successful hygiene interventions to save lives.</p>

Ethnographie, Kulturgeschichte oder Folkloristik? Die staatssozialistische Version der Volkskunde als wissenschaftliche Disziplin war nicht einfach zu definieren. Zwischen einer systemübergreifend kompatiblen Grundlagenforschung und einer spezifisch staatssozialistischen Anwendungsorientierung oszillierte die Arbeit der beiden wichtigsten Institute der ostdeutschen und tschechischen Volkskunde der 1970er und 1980er Jahre: des Wissenschaftsbereichs Kulturgeschichte/Volkskunde des Zentralinstituts für Geschichte an der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR und des Instituts für Ethnographie und Folkloristik an der Tschechoslowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten des wissenschaftlichen Wandels und der Arbeitsalltage der tschechischen und deutschen staatssozialistischen Akademie-Volkskunde ergaben sich aus den jeweiligen Traditionen und den zeitgenössischen Bezügen des Faches sowie aus den politischen Veränderungen seit Beginn der 1970er Jahre auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene. Es ergab sich für die Mitarbeiter beider Institute ein Perpetuum Mobile des Ressourcenwandels: Im wissenschaftlichen Bereich konnten Ressourcen über Forschungsaktivitäten zu politiknahen Themen erweitert werden, während mittels der verfügbaren Ressourcen in den Bereichen Politik und Öffentlichkeit aktiv dafür gesorgt werden konnte, dass gerade diese Themen ständig aktualisiert wurden. Nicht nur Erfolg und Scheitern der formell befugten Akteure, die Basis "im Plan" zu halten, lassen sich an konkreten Konflikten im Arbeitsalltag ablesen, sondern auch die jeweils aktivierten Ressourcen der Beteiligten. Daher bietet sich ein alltagsgeschichtlicher Zugang an. Mit Hilfe des transnationalen Vergleichs lassen sich system- wie national bedingte Charakteristika der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit im Staatssozialismus zwischen 1972 und 1990 herausarbeiten. / Cultural Engineers. Social anthropology at the Academies of Sciences in the GDR and in Czechoslovakia 1972-1990 Mapping two state socialist versions of social anthropology is one of the tasks of this thesis. Providing insight into academia as an example for a state socialist work place the thesis furthermore adresses interdisciplinary discussions about the distribution of power under the conditions of late state socialism. The thesis concentrates on the Academy of Sciences for its prominent role in state socialist research, both in the GDR and in Czechoslovakia. Here, the German Wissenschaftsbereich Kulturgeschichte/Volkskunde with departments in Berlin, Rostock and Dresden, and the Czech Ustav etnografii a folkloristiku with departments in Prague and Brno, are of interest. Comparing the routines and conflicts that evolved after 1972 in these research institutes the thesis analyzes the working conditions of state socialist social anthropology in a non-university setting. Not only was the research of present or past folk cultures part of the work schedule. Another side of the coin was the implementation of cultural and social policies of the Communist Party. The study proves the strength of transnational comparison as a valid method for historiography and the strength of the model of resources as introduced by Mitchell Ash.