UNT Libraries - 89 Matching Results

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open access

Meaning in Transition: An Ethnographic Study of the Cultural Construction of Health, Identity and Brands among Young Adults

Description: This study explored the lived experience of Gen Z adults in a liminal life-stage crisis where the symbolic meaning of health, identity and brands are in transition. Sixteen ethnographic in-home interviews with college students were conducted and analyzed using Geertz's interpretive and Turner's symbolic anthropology. A hermeneutic textual analysis was used to interpret three types of phenomenological data: text, pictures and collages. An "incubation" step was key in the creative interpretati… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Taylor, Elizabeth Lee
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Twenty-First Century Local Food Farmers in North Texas: An Evaluation of Farming Methods, Best Practices, and Common Struggles

Description: Research with local farmers and local food consumers in the North Texas area which captures a contemporary understanding of the challenges and successes present in North Texas local farm-and-food networks. Through ethnographic research methods, including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, the network of producers and consumers around several farmers' markets were evaluated to understand where the strengths of local food lie, and where networks need development to promote a … more
Date: December 2019
Creator: McFarland, Kelly
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

The Culture of Giving at Blue Ridge Literacy: Who Donates and Why?

Description: As a nonprofit located in a nonprofit-dense region in Roanoke, Virginia, Blue Ridge Literacy is among many other organizations competing for similar funding. This qualitative research project explores the reasons why donors give, why they support Blue Ridge Literacy, and what they think their future priorities for giving might be. By examining data from 15 qualitative interviews, this research is able to examine what BRL donors care about and offer suggestions for donor engagement strategies.
Date: August 2019
Creator: Holladay, Stephanie
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Doing Our Work Better, Together: An Application of Relational Coordination Theory to Explore and Shape Excellence in Trauma Care

Description: I conducted a mixed-methods collaborative ethnography using the lens of relational coordination theory. This included a qualitative survey using an established tool to analyze the relational dimensions of multidisciplinary teamwork, participant observation, interviews, and narrative surveys. Findings were presented to clinicians in working groups for further interpretation and to facilitate co-creation of targeted interventions designed to improve team relationships and performance. I engaged a… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Purdy, Eve Isabelle
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Identifying Community Access to Veterinary Services in Southern Dallas

Description: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Texas in Dallas, Texas offers an array of services and programs to residents in southern Dallas and other areas. However, interest in the state of access to veterinary care has been questioned for southern Dallas residents. In an area that faces certain compounding stressors, such as food deserts and transportation difficulties, a lack of access to veterinary care for pet owners is considered an additional possible stressor. Pet owners in … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: O'Neill, Skye J
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Negotiated Meanings on the Landscape: Culture, Perseverance and a Shift in Paradigms in Klawock, Alaska

Description: The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of Klawock's Tribal Citizens' relationship to harvesting what is colloquially known as customary and traditional foods and/or native foods. The state and federal governments categorize these culturally specific goods as subsistence foods. An unearthed, 5,360-year-old basket potentially links modern day Klawock Tribal Citizens with their ancestral ties to the region. Throughout this time, families in this region of Southeast Alaska have been … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Sopow, Catherine Ruby
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

The Public Health Response to an Ebola Virus Epidemic: Effects on Agricultural Markets and Farmer Livelihoods in Koinadugu, Sierra Leone

Description: During the 2013/16 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, numerous restrictions were placed on the movement and public gathering of local people, regardless of if the area had active Ebola cases or not. Specifically, the district of Koinadugu, Sierra Leone, preemptively enforced movement regulations before there were any cases within the district. This research demonstrates that ongoing regulations on movement and public gathering affected the livelihoods of those involved in agricultural… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Beyer, Molly
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Safe Routes to School Youth Voices

Description: Many communities are promoting physical activity and active transportation as ways to combat childhood obesity and change sedentary lifestyles of school-age children. Safe Routes to School Youth Voices is a mixed methods approach to understanding the experiences and perceptions of middle school students surrounding the use of active transportation. Student experiences are explored both independently and in comparison to parental perspectives of barriers to actives transportation. Data were coll… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Wright, Patricia Ann
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Telemedicine in Schools: Exploring Parent Perceptions and Desires

Description: School-based health clinics are on the rise while telemedicine is increasingly used to provide communities access to health care. Incorporating the two together poses to create healthier school communities. Parker County Hospital District collaborated with Weatherford Independent School District (WISD) to implement the district's first telemedicine school-based health clinic. This project is in partnership with Parker County Hospital District to explore parent perceptions and desires of telemed… more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Smith, Bethany Noel
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

On Preserving Games and Perseverance for the Future: A Developer Perspective

Description: Using ethnographic research methods, I worked with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to conduct an exploratory study about developer perspectives on video game preservation. I conducted in-depth interviews with independent developers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, a hub for Texas game development. These interviews explored developers' knowledge and awareness of game preservation as a topic of concern, archival culture and practices in the industry, and the IGDA's potential … more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Gonzalez, Stephen
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Patient Experience of Cultural Competency in a Hospital Setting

Description: Anthropological research conducted in a local Texas hospital provides data to analyze cultural competency. Increasing health equity is a key aspect of cultural competency literature, hospital, and national goals. Examining the local context allows for the analysis of how one hospital can affect public health in the area by using patient-centered care. Using observational and interview data to create the ideal of the patient journey shows how patient families experience cultural competency. Over… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Thomas, Ashley Nicole
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation

The Power of Place: A Qualitative Evaluation of Stream Monitoring Data Usage by Decision-Makers in Dane County, Wisconsin

Description: Has years of citizen-based nutrient sampling and baseline water quality monitoring efforts only had a "trivial" impact on natural resource management decisions? This thesis will explore this and other findings from a qualitative evaluation of the Rock River Coalition (RRC) citizen-based stream monitoring project in Dane County, Wisconsin, USA. These findings are the culmination of 47 semi-structured interviews with decision-makers from seven client-identified categories and participant observat… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Semlow, Andrea R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Anthropology of Aging: Assessment of Old Age Needs and Ethical Issues regarding the Use of Assistive Technologies

Description: The main goal of this research has been to investigate elderly people's needs, perceptions, fears, hopes, and expectation regarding elderly care, including ethical issues linked to assistive technologies. As faith seems to take an important place in how some elders face the aging process, the spiritual dimension was also included. Therefore, the research was conducted among 15 church congregants. Results show that most respondents fear the physical and mental decay due to aging, often resulting… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Atibaka, Sunday O
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Building Relationships between a Free Clinic and Its Donors

Description: This thesis presents qualitative research conducted in summer 2017 at the Finger Lakes Free Clinic, which provides free medical and holistic care to people without insurance in upstate New York. The primary goal of this research was to strengthen the relationship between a free clinic and its donors by gathering donor concerns and perceptions regarding federal healthcare policy. Data from 32 interviews with donors, staff, board members, and volunteers, along with 100 hours of participant observ… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Nalin, Emma R
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Disaster Preparedness in Escambia County Florida: The Influence of Oral Narratives

Description: This work addresses hurricane preparedness in Escambia County, Florida. It explores preparing for hurricanes as an informal learning process occurring within personal networks and embedded in beliefs, values, and attitudes. Findings reveal that participants learned to prepare from their parents in childhood and improved upon that knowledge through direct experience in adulthood. Later, they passed this knowledge on to their children as well as co-workers. These preparations are embedded in beli… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Vanlandingham, Keith Marcel
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Untrammeled by Man? An Ethnographic Approach of Outdoor Recreation Management in Charon's Garden Wilderness

Description: Charon's Garden Wilderness Area within the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma is a landscape that is granted federal protection through the Wilderness Act of 1964. The discourse of wilderness management is influenced by governmental policies and practice which organize knowledge surrounding the natural landscape, like with the formation and semantics of the Wilderness Act. The Wilderness Act establishes characteristics that are designed to monitor and control the landscape a… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Lukins, Gabrielle M
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Welcoming Communities: Examining the Experiences of Dallas Area Immigrants on the Path to U.S. Citizenship

Description: The U.S. citizenship application process is a legal and symbolic journey shaped by many cultural processes. This research project aims to bring to light the experiences of immigrants and citizenship applicants living in Dallas, Texas, to promote a better understanding of Dallas' increasingly diverse population. In addition, the purpose of this project is to provide insights to a specific client, the office of Dallas Welcoming Communities and Immigrant Affairs, about Dallas' lawful permanent res… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Fink, Madeline
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Advancing a Community's Conversations About and Engagement with Climate Change

Description: The goal of this project completed for the Greater Northfield Sustainability Collaborative (GNSC) was to understand how Northfield, Minnesota citizens are experiencing climate change. Thirty individuals were interviewed to find out what they know about climate change, what actions they are taking, what they think the solutions are to the problems, and what barriers they have to more fully engaging with climate change issues. The interview results are intended to promote and advance the communit… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Hansen, Carla Grace
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

An Ethnography of Direct-to-Consumer Genomics [DTCG]: Design Anthropology Insights for the Product Management of a Disruptive Innovation

Description: Direct-to-consumer genomics (DTCG) health testing offers great promise to humanity, however to date adoption has lagged as a result of consumer awareness, understanding, and previous government regulations restricting DTCG companies from providing information on an individual's genetic predispositions. But in 2017 the broader DTCG market which also includes genealogical testing demonstrated exponential growth, implying that DTCG is starting to diffuse as an innovation. To better understand the … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Artz, Matthew
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Getting the College Experience: Exploring the Effect of the Residential Component of the Upward Bound Summer Program

Description: Upward Bound is a federally funded program designed to help low-income and first-generation high school students become college graduates by providing them with academic enrichment, financial aid information, and relevant educational experiences. Many Upward Bound programs throughout the country include a 6-week summer program when participants stay in residence halls on a university campus. The Upward Bound program at the University of North Texas is one such program. The goals of this researc… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Krehbiel, Riley M
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Giving Texas Veterans a Voice: Traumatic Experience and Marijuana Use

Description: Disabled veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exist in a category separate from many civilians and soldiers. Their experiences land them in a category distinctly marked as atypical. The standard protocol to manage this atypical subject position is prescription drugs- a mark of the ill. In a distorted, post-war American society, what happens when veterans with PTSD refuse to be labeled as ‘sick,' ‘different,' or even ‘disabled'? This thesis explores the actions and intricacies of … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Berard, Amanda Kay
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Subjective Efficiencies: Water Use, Management and Governance in the North Platte Natural Resources District

Description: The North Platte Natural Resources District (NPNRD) is one of 23 quasi-governmental organizations in the state of Nebraska that are organized by river basin and are responsible for the management of groundwater. Conversely, the state's surface water is governed by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources under the system of prior appropriation. This study uses Foucauldian neoliberal governmentality and a contrasting theory of 'meandering' to explore the conflicting beliefs, perceptions and … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Miller, Elizabeth
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

An Ethnographic Inquiry and Evaluation into the Student's Perspective and Experience with Improvement Science at Algoma School District

Description: Using ethnographic research in the form of an outcomes assessment, this project aims to unpack and evaluate the experiences of students and significance of the key concepts shared during the Live Algoma-Improvement Science course/and associated projects during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years. Through the use of evaluative techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and a survey, I endeavor to both strengthen and inform the work Live Algoma is doing and highlight to the community and o… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Williams, Jodi M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
open access

Experiences of Latinos with Diabetes in the Central San Joaquin Valley

Description: Embarking on a quest to uncover the shared experiences of Latinos with diabetes in the Central San Joaquin Valley is the principal issue discussed in this body of work. Diabetes is estimated to become a serious public health problem, with a current estimate of more than 30 million already afflicted. Engaging in participant-observation at a local clinic serving patients in a Diabetes Education Program and semi-structured interviews with Latinos attending the program, this research explores cultu… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Cortez, Jacqueline Nicole
Item Type: Refine your search to only Thesis or Dissertation
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