Tag: Social Sciences & Humanities

Effects of Gender Transition on Language Use in Second Language Acquisition of Japanese

Presenter(s): Dylan Williams

Faculty Mentor(s): Kaori Idemaru

Poster 146

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Issues related to identity play an important role in guiding learners as they acquire a new language. The purpose of this study was to examine how gender transition may affect the use of linguistic gender-forms during language acquisition. Japanese is a highly gendered language, with varying degree of feminine and masculine forms in pronouns and sentence ending particles. My learning of Japanese and experience with transition provided an opportunity to analyze the interaction between the two. In order to conduct this study, I completed an autoethnography of my own past journal writings from the Japanese 301 and 302 courses here at the UO. The analysis revealed heavy avoidance of explicitly gendered forms and a strategy of solely using neutral pronouns and sentence ending particles, reflecting a low comfort level between using gender-matched features and the struggle with gender identity. The anxiety associated with transition appeared to have influenced language performance, also leading to less classroom interaction and involvement. The implication of this study is that students in this situation are not fully able to center themselves as users of that language, and so are less likely to center themselves in classwork. More support from instructors and researchers is needed in order to properly address the obstacles that trans students face, such as alleviating anxiety due to gender transition and understanding how it influences language use. Such efforts could address gender in broader ways, leading to overall more inclusive, comfortable, and inviting classroom environment that encourages language use and learning.

Racialized and Gendered Justice in the Criminal Court System

Presenter(s): Joy Wilcox

Faculty Mentor(s): Debra Thompson

Poster 97

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Criminal courts facilitate mass incarceration and the disproportionate incarceration of people of color, especially Black people, and Black men in particular. While other research has been done around this topic, this study offers insight into how exactly this is produced in the courtroom specifically. This study sought to observe (1) the potential use of coded language in the courtroom as a proponent of mass incarceration, (2) the reproduction of race and gender-based biases in the criminal justice system, and (3) the role of the courts in both mass incarceration, and the disproportionate representation within the incarcerated population. This study employed an observational research approach which included the accumulation of both quantitative and qualitative data by recording the race and gender of main courtroom actors, every reference to race, gender, and/or class made in the courtroom, and a brief overview of each case in order to contextualize this information. The types of cases observed during this project include: Attempted Robbery, Burglary, Child Endangerment, Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Sell, Robbery, and Theft (including Vehicle Theft). This study found that defendants for these cases were disproportionately Black and Latinx men, while the other main courtroom actors were disproportionately White, with all categories other than prosecutors also being disproportionately men. The structural dependency on police within the courtroom resulted in the court legitimizing all police discretion with no interrogation of bias. When defendants and their legal representation attempted to discuss any identity-based bias of the criminal justice system before a jury trial, this attempt was stopped by the judge. This study concluded that in order to produce justice, anti-racism must be made a genuine priority of the criminal justice system.

“The Perfect Hybrid”: Art, Architecture, and Advertising in Solange’s Metatronia (Metatron’s Cube)

Presenter(s): Claren Walker

Faculty Mentor(s): Emily Scott & Gretchen Soderlund

Poster 149

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

In April 2018, multidisciplinary artist and musician Solange Ferguson (neé Knowles) debuted a collaborative performance piece titled Metatronia (Metatron’s Cube) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Although the piece centers around a choreographed dance performance within a sculptural white cube structure, Metatronia’s ultimate manifestation is the short video that has been widely circulated on the internet and social media. While Solange’s sculptural white cube both relies upon and disrupts the canons of modern architecture and minimalist art, it also occupies a place in the landscape of brand advertising. Critically, the video was executed “in partnership” with the Japanese fast fashion corporation Uniqlo (whose clothes the dancers wear) and produced by their advertising agency of record, Droga5 UK. By critically examining media coverage of the project and bringing it into dialogue with historical and contemporary art, architectural, and media scholarship, this research explores the tension in Metatronia (and other branded cultural phenomena like it) between its status as a work of art for public benefit and its function as a media vehicle to generate capital for corporate interest. Metatronia’s effectiveness as an advertisement depends on the veiling of its very function as one: with brand involvement masked under smooth rhetorics of “partnership,” the piece can exist comfortably in high art contexts while still elevating a fast fashion company. Metatronia exists at a nebulous–but commercially successful–intersection of art, architecture, and advertisement. More broadly, this case study reveals the complex dynamics and contradictions of contemporary cultural production under late neoliberal capitalism.

Medical Technologies in Context: Maternal and Child Healthcare at Ghana’s Cape Coast Teaching Hospital

Presenter(s): Ally Waldron

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Graboyes

Poster 161

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

This ethnographic thesis explores medical technologies in the context of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital in southern Ghana. All too often the transfer and integration of medical technologies to the global south are based on the simplistic assumption that the advantages of foreign technology are self-evident and universal. However, in settings where conditions are harsh, resources limited, and culture dynamic, medical technology develops new meaning and purpose beyond original clinical expectations. To explore this phenomenon, I use ethnographic observations and field notes gathered from clinical shadowing in hospitals in Oregon and Cape Coast to investigate three medical technologies involved in maternal and newborn health. I show how the fetal ultrasound, pulse oximeter, and neonatal incubator change when exported to the Ghanaian context to fit the needs of doctors and patients while also working to change the way people relate to each other and their illnesses. In this process, medical technology becomes both a changeable force and a force for change in this hospital environment. Exploration of these examples of global medical technology transfer demonstrates that context matters in how medical technology operates and is operated within the clinical space. This thesis presents evidence against the idea that medical technology remains a static element of healthcare when transferred globally and also calls for more consideration of cultural, social, and economic institutions when exporting foreign medical technology to a new context.

Regulatory success and eating disorder symptomatology: does cognitive reappraisal scores predict specific eating disorder risk?

Presenter(s): Nathalie Verhoeven

Faculty Mentor(s): Dani Cosme

Poster 81

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

This study seeks to illuminate the effects of high stress on eating habits, such as craving regulation, and the relationship between regulatory success and eating disorder symptomatology. Many years of research have showed a strong correlation between emotional regulation and ED risk. High stress has major effects on eating habits, such as craving regulation, and acts as a mediator between regulatory success and eating disorder symptomatology. A lot of modern and foundational research on eating disorders (ED) and emotional regulation (ER) has focused primarily on risk reduction and mitigation, but very little has been dedicated to prevention. In this study, we observe the correlation between ED scores and reappraisal abilities.

Weight Related Teasing is Associated with Exercise Dependence Symptoms in African American Men

Presenter(s): Trace Vancleave

Co Presenter(s): Grace Floyd

Faculty Mentor(s): Nichole Kelly

Poster 129

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Few studies have examined the correlates of weight related teasing in African American men. Yet, extant data indicate that weight related teasing is linked with body image concerns and unhealthy weight control behaviors in college women. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between weight related teasing and exercise dependence symptoms in young African American men. Body image concerns were evaluated as a possible moderator. Study participants (N = 261; Mage = 23.72 ± 3.47; MBMI = 25.01 ± 5.90 kg/m2 ) completed an online survey and reported on frequency and distress of perceived weight related teasing (Perceptions of Teasing Scale), exercise dependence symptoms (Exercise Dependence Scale), and body image concerns (Revised Male Body Image Attitudes Scale). Linear regression models were conducted, controlling for income, education, presence of a psychiatric diagnosis, and body mass index. Frequency and distress of weight related teasing were both positively associated with exercise dependence symptoms (ps < .001). Body image concerns did not moderate the link between frequency of teasing (p > .05) or distress from teasing (p > .05) and exercise dependence symptoms. These results suggest that, regardless of body image concerns, higher frequency and distress of weight related teasing are associated with increased exercise dependence symptoms in young African American men. Contrary to prior research in women, African American men may have different motivations for excessive exercise that makes their body image concerns less relevant.

The Micro-Mobility Narrative: Understanding the Effects of Anecdotal and Visual Communication on Health and Safety Behavior

Presenter(s): Marie Van Rysselberghe 

Faculty Mentor(s): Autum Shafer & Nicole Dahmen

Poster 108

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

In the face of extreme pollution and congestion, micro-mobility transportation presents an alleviating solution for many megacities. However, as e-scooters, such as Lime and Bird, have rolled out in major cities across the globe, media coverage has centered around the accompanying safety epidemic related to user error and miscommunication. To understand how shared e-scooter companies can better design health and safety information, my research examines the presentation of terms and conditions statements that include safety instructions. By using a 2×2 factorial design experiment, my research examines participants interaction with the following stimuli conditions: (1) narrative example in standard (i.e., text-only) presentation, (2) narrative example in visual presentation, (3) non-narrative example in standard (i.e., text- only) presentation, and (4) non-narrative example in visual presentation. Participants are randomly assigned to one condition and exposed to the stimuli online via Qualtrics before answer a posttest questionnaire. Examining the effect of narrative and visual communication on health and safety attitudes and behavior, this research measures participants knowledge and understanding of the presented safety information, perceived fear of scooter use, perceived vulnerability, intentions to comply with safety instructions, and organizational trust. On these outcomes, hypotheses predict increased levels of knowledge, intentions to comply and organizational trust, as well as predict decreased perceptions of fear and vulnerability.

Is Forgetting Good for Learning? Examining the Emergence of Abstract Rule Representations

Presenter(s): Tuong Vy Tran

Faculty Mentor(s): Ulrich Mayr & Atsushi Kikumoto

Poster 131

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Most actions are driven by abstract action rules that need to be applied to specific environmental conditions. The abstract goal to make coffee is implemented differently in your own than in your office kitchen. We examine here the degree to which improvements through practice result from (1) strengthened representations of abstract rules, from (2) better adaptation to specific environmental conditions, or from (3) representations that integrate abstract rules and specific conditions into conjunctive representations. We used a task that required the application of up to four different abstract spatial translation rules in order to respond to a given spatial stimulus. Subjects (N=46) performed an initial, 45-minute session applying two of the four rules to one of two possible stimulus configurations. During the second, 45-minute session, the two withheld abstract rules and the second stimulus configuration were introduced. To test the possibility that abstract, generalizable knowledge is fostered through consolidation or forgetting of specific conjunctive representations the second session occurred either right after the first session, or one week apart. Results showed that it was harder to apply new rules to practiced than to new stimulus configurations–– a clear indication conjunctive representations between abstract rules and stimulus settings. Importantly, this effect was substantially weakened when the new rules/stimulus settings were tested after one week. This suggests that during the 1-week delay, specific conjunctive representations were weakened (i.e., forgetting), thereby increasing the contributions of abstract rule representations. In other words, forgetting can benefit the emergence of generalizable skills.

The Impact of Foreign Involvement on Political Reform Organizations

Presenter(s): Sravya Tadepalli

Faculty Mentor(s): Dan Tichenor & Jane Cramer

Poster 126

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

This paper assesses the impact of foreign involvement on political reform organizations in Jordan. Through a comparative evaluation of the democratization work of completely foreign- funded international organizations, partially foreign-funded Jordanian organizations, and Jordanian organizations that do not receive foreign funding, derived from several interviews conducted with democracy practitioners in international and local NGOs, political activists, scholars, and others, this paper examines the effect of foreign involvement on organizational strategies, credibility, and effectiveness, ultimately arguing that foreign involvement (and conversely, the lack thereof) has a considerable impact on the way political reform organizations have been able to carry out their activities. This study can hopefully be used to help both foreign and Jordanian policymakers and activists understand the way in which foreign involvement can help and/or impede democratic progress in Jordan.

The Relationship Between Self-Reported Mindfulness and the P300

Presenter(s): Josephine Swift

Faculty Mentor(s): Jennifer Lewis & Don Tucker

Poster 95

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Mindfulness is a state of awareness that allows an individual to more effectively monitor their cognition and emotions. The ways in which mindfulness impacts aspects of cognition, including attention and attentional control, are still being researched. The current study examines how dispositional mindfulness is related to individuals’ attention and attentional control as measured through dense-array EEG (dEEG). We examined participant’s (n=72) scores on the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer, Smith, Hopkins, Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006) and their event-related potentials (ERPs) generated from completing the color-word Stroop task modified for dEEG recording. Response times were also recorded. ERP waveform amplitude differences for the P300, an ERP associated with attentional processes, did not significantly differ by category (i.e., Incongruent, Congruent). However, preliminary analyses showed a relationship between self-reported mindfulness and the amplitude of the P300 (across both categories), whereas higher scores on the FFMQ were associated with attenuated P300 amplitudes. Decreased P300 amplitudes may indicate the deployment of less attentional resources. It’s possible that individuals who are more mindful, have naturally increased attention and therefore require less attentional resources in a cognitively demanding task. Mindfulness has been found to be an effective intervention for mood disorders, particularly anxiety disorders (Blanck et al. 2018). Understanding the particular ways that mindfulness impacts cognition may lead to a further understanding of the mechanisms by which mindfulness improves anxiety symptoms and thus improve treatment.