Embodied Liberation: Somatic Tools for Metabolizing White Fragility

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This poster draws from various studies and writings to provide tools for white bodies to metabolize their false sense of fragility around race related topics. Conversations around dismantling white body supremacy are often limited to addressing racism in a purely rational, intellectual manner. But white body supremacy is anything but rational. The symptoms of living in a racialized society accumulate within the body, often leading to unmetabolized pain, fear and/or conflict. This gives way to trauma associated with white supremacy, which often perpetuates racism while degrading our bodies and inhibiting our collective liberation.

Ethnic Differences in Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Role of Childhood Socioeconomic Status

College of Professional Studies

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; e.g., child maltreatment, domestic violence, and other household dysfunctions), have been linked to an increased risk of later social and behavioral problems. Cronholm et al. (2015) found that the prevalence of ACEs was higher in their ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample, as compared to less diverse samples, suggesting that ACEs maybe more prevalent in marginalized populations. Bruner (2017) suggests poverty may play a role in the disproportionate experiencing of ACEs on people of color (PoC). The current study aims to examine links between ethnicity, childhood socioeconomic status, and ACEs in a sample of ethnically diverse (47% PoC) adults.

Ethnozoology in North America

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Exploring what ethnozoology is and how various Native American tribes used traditional ecological knowledge and ethnozoology to learn about animals and apply that knowledge to their way of life. The project will also cover how ethnozoology can be applied to our research, treatment, and conservation of animals throughout the country today.

Evaluating Adaptive Governance and Social-Ecological Restoration of the Klamath Dams on the Klamath River

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This poster will examine the historical timeline of tribal water rights along the Klamath River, including the various relicensing agreements associated with the Klamath Dams. This poster will also focus on the window of opportunity that the relicensing of the hydroelectric dams by providing a framework to implement an adaptive governance approach by reconsidering socio-ecological values within the tribes along the Klamath River. This poster will also demonstrate the use of socio-spatial formations through indigenous led processes stemming from indigenous knowledge and traditional values.

Examining Litter Flammability from Eastern Hardwood Forests

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Fire exclusion has led to mesophication in many eastern hardwood forests, or dominance of fire-sensitive mesophytes. Subsequently this has led to a reduction in pyrophytic litter, reducing the effectiveness of prescribed burns in sustaining ecosystems that need regular fire. Eight species of deciduous trees were examined for their max flame height, leaf pile heights, burn time, smolder time, and residual burned matter. This study will support the classification of tested species as either mesophytes, characterized by low flammability litter, or pyrophytes, characterized by high flammability litter. Greater understanding of these traits will lead to improved ecosystem and fire management.

Examining Validity of the Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory Adapted for Armenian Americans

College of Professional Studies

Acculturative stress is experienced when individuals go through the process of acculturation (i.e., reconciling two or more cultures). Previous research has used the Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory (MASI) to assess this stress. However, the measure has only been used with a limited number of ethnic groups. The current study examines the factor structure of the MASI with a community sample of Armenian Americans.

Exploratory Analyses of the Self and Group: Entitativity

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

We completed an exploratory secondary analysis examining 167 students’ perceptions of their self/group’s warmth, entitativity, and the extent to which they identity with their group. Results indicate that perceptions of self-warmth, group warmth, and entitativity each positively predict group identification. A mismatch of the group variables are indicative of a threatening ingroup (low group warmth and high entitativity). Findings suggest that positive views of the self can act as a protective function against a threatening ingroup and may be related to projecting positive images of the self onto the group.

Feeding the Machine: Effects of Propaganda During World War II

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Propaganda has affected politics for centuries. This research identified underlying themes/differences between U.S. and Nazi propaganda from World War II. Methods included a literature review as well as collecting and analyzing propaganda from that time. A trend that emerged during research was that both forms of propaganda espoused the ideal of defeating an enemy that was a threat to national security. U.S. propaganda focused more on maximizing resources and instilling fear among its citizens, while Nazi propaganda rallied citizens to perform their “natural duty”. This research brings to light key trends in the nature of propaganda and reflects how it influenced our modern culture.

Finding Stable Isotope Signatures of Fauna of Northwest California: A Tool for Anthropological Investigations

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Anthropologists use Stable isotope analyses to understand environments where past and present human cultures lived. This project starts a database of isotopic signatures for the region of Humboldt County, in northwestern California, as a baseline for further research. I prepared samples at HSU Archaeology and Biological Anthropology Research labs for Carbon (C) and Oxygen (O) stable isotopes using H2O2 Hydroxyapatite-Carbonate protocol. The samples will be sent to Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz and analyzed for δ13C & δ18O. As database entries increase, evidence of stable isotopic signatures of specific areas in northwest California may be identified.

From One Way to Our Ways: Instilling Indigenous Values in the Western Education System

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Data show that Indigenous students are underperforming academically in schools because Western based education is failing to adapt multicultural pedagogies into the curriculum. To explore this issue, I examined peer-reviewed literature and conducted interviews from local teachers and experts in the field of secondary education. Indigenous concepts of community based building exercises, oral and social communication, as well as storytelling challenged Western discipline based learning methods focused on isolated learning and individual success. Understanding why Western education is flawed gives insight to immediate and future goals of improving education as a multicultural based discipline.