Skin in the Game: Providing Redress for American Sports\u27 Appropriation of Native American Iconography

To date, legal efforts to eradicate the use of Native American iconography in American sports have focused on the concept of Indian nicknames as disparaging terms and Indian mascots as harmful images. But subjective claims of harm are hard to prove and are often thwarted by First Amendment protections because judges remain reluctant to regulate expressive and commercial freedom of speech based on offense. And while a 2014 ruling by the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelling six of the Washington Redskins’ trademark registrations was a landmark moment for name-change advocates, the decision could be overturned on appeal. This paper outlines a different approach in exploring the legal validity of American Indian sports nicknames and mascots by examining trademark, copyright, and right of publicity laws that govern the appropriation of personal and brand identity. While the commercial use of one\u27s identity is protected under right of publicity laws, this legal principle is rarely evoked in legal petitions brought by activists, resolutions encouraged by legislators, or by the many scholars who agree on the harmful effects of cultural misappropriation. Based on my case study of the Chicago Blackhawks, an NHL team using the moniker of a legendary Indian chief, I offer a proposal that uses existing right of publicity law to challenge the unfettered appropriation of Native American indicia of identity

Dogging it at work : developing and performing organizational routines as a minor league baseball mascot

textReferring to an employee as “the face” of an organization suggests that an individual worker’s actions may transmit information about the kind of organization they represent. Mascots in a baseball stadium make that metaphor material by wearing an organizationally prescribed mask and performing in the name of the organization (Keller & Richey, 2006; MacNeill, 2009). This study investigated how one baseball mascot, Spike of the Round Rock Express, embodied his team’s identity through the activation of organizational routines by analyzing video recordings, autoethnographic field notes, and stories (Heath & Luff, 2013). Recognizing the highly symbolic work of a mascot work has implications for the performer, audience members, and organizations who rely on mascots to enhance the stadium experience. Additionally, this research provides suggestions for future mascot performers on how they might come to “know your role and play it to the hilt” (Devantier & Turkington, 2006). Organizational routines combine three recursive dimensions: the ostensive, understandings an employee brings to his or her work, the performative, actions an employee takes while doing his or her work, and the artifactual, material objects an employee uses or creates in order to facilitate work tasks (Feldman & Pentland, 2003). This research begins with an exploration of how I developed occupational and organizational role expectations. In order to know my role, I had to learn Spike’s identity: what he must do, may do, and can do (Strauss, 1959; Enfield, 2011). I specifically recognize the ways I came to understand my role as someone who embodies the mission of the organization through the preparation of artifacts for performance and protection of the audience for whom I am performing. The performative dimension is explored by identifying instances when my performance challenged established understandings of Spike’s identity, specifically in instances where I was unprepared for a scenario or chose to protect one group’s interest over another’s. In these unanticipated moments, I often found myself turning other participants in the stadium event, like fans and coworkers, into co-performers and relied on their improvisational offerings to inform my ongoing performance (Eisenberg, 1990; Meyer, Frost, & Weick, 1998).Communication Studie

A sound divided : the battles of musical space in Austin, Texas

textAustin is the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World,” and its commitment to the practice of musical performance has created a unique environment for musicians and audiences. In particular, this paper focuses on the history of music in public places in Austin. This creative identity has helped encourage growth that creates stress on cultural and social relations. The conflict over amplified music is one front where this opposition plays out. Currently, the Austin noise ordinance is a decibel-based, quantifiable measurement, but everyone involved must make a greater effort to communicate and compromise in the social sphere. To cultivate a thriving live music scene, a strong commitment from venues, musicians, residents, and city hall is necessary.Radio-Television-Fil

Communicating conservation: public relations practitioners\u27 communication efforts to inform the public of the detriments of coastal erosion and wetlands loss

Coastal erosion is a serious problem that directly affects Louisiana and indirectly affects the entire United States. Between 1990 and 2000, Louisiana lost 24 square miles of land per year, which equals an approximate football field lost every 38 minutes (Barras, Bourgeois, & Handley, 1994). Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 accelerated this land loss by transforming 217 square miles of marsh into open water (United States Geological Survey, 2006). As a leader in seafood, oil, and gas production, and shipping state, Louisiana and the nation have much at stake with continued land loss. To inform Louisiana’s citizens and a national audience about coastal erosion, several organizations have formed to create awareness and serve as educational bodies. America’s WETLAND Foundation, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, and the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities use public relations as a communication tool to spread the message of coastal restoration. By understanding what messages the public relations practitioners disseminate and how, best practices may be found to help future coastal restoration advocates. This thesis examines these organizations’ public relations practitioners’ strategies and tactics as well as local and national newspaper coverage. Through in-depth interviews and a content analysis of organizational press releases, the researcher found that the messages focused on government and coastal restoration engineering. Each organization also focused on different attributes determined by the organization’s public. The public relations practitioners described media as an important communication channel. The researcher performed a content analysis of news articles about coastal erosion to see if their messages made it into the local and national media. The major themes from the news article content analysis revealed attention to government, hurricanes, and coastal restoration engineering. Though the major themes for the organizational press releases and the news articles shared similarities, the media did not always use these organizations as sources in its stories. To further spread the coastal restoration messages, practitioners must develop and maintain relationships with organizational publics and news media and establish themselves as the voices of coastal restoration authorities in Louisiana

Undergraduate college student's attitudes toward Native Americans and their Native studies course experiences: a critical mixed methods study

2012 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.This mixed method study seeks to understand the attitudes of predominately White or Euro-American students enrolled in a Native studies course as measured by the Political and Racial Attitudes Toward Native Americans (PRATNA) Scale and the Color-blind Racial Attitudes Scale (COBRAS). Quantitatively, the study seeks to understand attitudes toward Native Americans as measured by a newly adapted attitudinal scale and qualitatively the study seeks to understand student's experiences of taking a Native studies course and what they learn or unlearn through the process. The use of mixed research methods provides a more complex and nuanced understanding of student's attitudes and experiences in the course. Epistemologically, the study is grounded in a complementary fusion of critical/transformative/Indigenous paradigms which seeks to "express and illuminate some of the vexing issues" of our times, "transform systems of oppression" and serve the needs of Indigenous communities (Merriam, 1991; Mertens, 2010; Hart 2010). The study is also informed by Tribal Critical Race Theory (an offshoot of Critical Race Theory) and provides a valuable framework for understanding the role Native studies courses play in deconstructing dominant narratives regarding the lives, histories, and experiences of Native people. Currently, there is not an available measure that accounts for Native American's liminal status as both political and racial beings. Additionally, there are few studies that research predominately White student's attitudes toward Native Americans and their perceptions from an Indigenous perspective based on a review of the literature. The findings from the mixed method study suggest that quantitatively, there were statistically significant differences between undergraduate college student's pre and post-PRATNA scores (p =.001), between students who have taken Native studies courses in the past and those who have not (p =.028), and between students who have taken past cultural diversity courses and those who have not (p =0.47). The qualitative findings suggest that three overarching themes can be constructed around the experience and process of taking Native American studies courses: 1) Learning and Unlearning: Past, Present, and Future; 2) Awareness, Emotion, and Moving Toward Action; and 3) Locus of Change. Students seem to move through the themes as a continuum, or do not, based on personal and educational factors. The appropriateness of mixed methods was discussed to explicate the ways both quantitative and qualitative data strengthened this study, and allowed for nuances to be seen that would be neglected by the use of one method alone. Lastly, the emergent finding of students' experiences participating in distance focus groups was explored to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the method

Exploring the educational aspirations of rural youth: an image-based study using participant produced photographs

Department Head: Carole J. Makela.2010 Spring.Includes bibliographical references (pages 77-81).Education is an important variable in forming student aspirations in that it serves to help students become more knowledgeable about the world, more sensitive and understanding of their relationship to it, and more eager to contribute to the community. The purpose of this visual ethnography study was to explore how students in one rural ninth grade classroom perceive their home, school, and community environments as supporting and/or inhibiting their educational aspirations. The approach allowed students to describe their reality in a tangible visual manner by studying; what students do (behaviors), what they say (reporting on photographs), and what they make, (photographs). Cultural themes emerged from the three environments; school, community and home in which rural ninth grade students spend a majority of their time. This study was conducted in a rural area in the county of Colorado referred to as Steel County, located approximately ten miles east of the city. The community surrounding Steel County consists of residential areas, produce farms, and small businesses. The rural high school student body is comprised from sub-cities and transfer students from outside areas compiling a fifty mile parameter. The use of photography provided a unique lens at capturing multi-level relationships that impact rural educational aspirations. Student photographs successfully captured social relationships within the cultural, political-economic, socio-political and spatial context of a rural community, captured within the home, school and community setting

Building Democracy for All: Interactive Explorations of Government and Civic Life

Designed as a core or supplementary text for upper elementary, middle and high school teachers and students, Building Democracy for All offers instructional ideas, interactive resources, links to primary sources, multicultural materials, and multimodal learning materials for interest-building explorations of United States government as well as students’ roles as citizens in a democratic society. It focuses on the importance of community engagement and social responsibility as understood and acted upon by middle and high school students—core themes in the 2018 Massachusetts 8th Grade Curriculum Framework, and which are found in many state history and social studies curriculum frameworks around the country. Building Democracy for All has been developed by a collaborative writing team of higher education faculty, public school teachers, educational librarians, and college students who are preparing to become history and social studies teachers. The primary editors and curators are from the University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education. Contributing teachers come from school districts in the Connecticut River valley region of western Massachusetts (Amherst, Gateway, Westfield, Hampshire Regional, and Springfield). As an open resource, the book is being revised constantly by the members of the writing team to ensure timely inclusion of online resources and information.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/tecs_ed_materials/1001/thumbnail.jp