Big Piney Crimes

In 1983, the year Scarface debuted in theaters, big oil marched across the buckle state of Wyoming with the construction of the Frontier Oil pipeline. Oil patch workers from around the U.S. came to Wyoming to labor on the project, forming a temporary community termed the pipeline family. My mother’s brother, Ed Brown, moved to Big Piney, Wyoming and was hired on as a pipeline welder. His shooting death at the hands of a pipeline inspector ushered in my coming of age. Back at the family homeplace in Texas, 1000 miles from Big Piney, grief stained the fabric of our daily lives as we processed the murder of a beloved son, father, brother, and uncle. Proper justice, something I thought we could count on, was repeatedly delayed. When an ominous warning came to my grandfather that to continue to pursue justice was to court death, despair overtook us. My grandfather stopped his attempts to “get justice for Ed.” For years, hopelessness blanketed the tragedy like so much country dust, until in the wake of the pandemic, my grandfather’s files on his oldest son’s murder arrived on my front doorstep, giving me the means to excavate the truth. In facing this almost forgotten family tragedy, I have overcome my fears in an effort to bring closure to these wounds. The present-day narrative follows this work and frames the story of Uncle Ed’s murder. Along the way, my mother and I orchestrated an adventure that landed us in the Grand Tetons some thirty-eight years after Uncle Ed’s death and just in time to meet the judge who dismissed the case against his murderer

Poems from Charity Lamb

These poems were written from the perspective of Charity Lamb.https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/aha_2015/1002/thumbnail.jp

Charity Lamb\u27s Diary

This imagined diary traces the life of Charity Lamb over a 20-year period (1834-1854).https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/aha_2015/1003/thumbnail.jp

Soundscapes for Social Change: Community and Consciousness through Sound Design Rhetorics

By applying a “sound-mapping” methodology that incorporates qualitative interviews and field research, I argue that theater sound design provides new means to connect sonic rhetorics with social change. I examine theater sound design as an ecological composing practice that lends itself to empathy, community, action, and pedagogy; and further argue that there is rhetorical potential in what I call “soundscapes for social change,” a concept that encourages sonic agency and sound as contemporary resistance. The theater setting introduces sound and vibration experiences carefully calculated and developed to impact a variety of audiences and stir their imaginations through sensory experiences, accessed not just through the ear but also through the body

Phylogenetically novel species are more successful due to high competitive ability at local and regional scales

While few introduced exotic species become invasive, this small number of species poses serious threats to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and recreation, leading ecologists to study why certain species become invasive and why certain communities are prone to invasions. Several leading hypotheses seek to explain invasiveness, including the Enemy Release Hypothesis, the trait superiority hypothesis, and the Biotic Resistance Hypothesis, but none are consistently supported in the literature. We suggest that the lack of uniting hypothesis is a result of the inability to put multiple proposed mechanisms in the same framework, and suggest for a uniting framework Darwin’s Naturalization Hypothesis along with a mechanistic approach and a view of multiple spatial scales. We address this by conducting an experimental study seeking the response of the effect of a competitor reduction treatment to phylogenetic novelty for native and invasive species over local and regional scales. We address (1) whether phylogenetic novelty correlates with high competitive ability, (2) if and how this relationship differs when novelty is assessed at regional versus local spatial scales, and (3) how this mechanism differs between native and invasive species. We find a significant negative correlation between phylogenetic novelty and effect of competitor reduction at both spatial scales tested, indicating that novel species are better competitors, though the relationship is driven mostly by native rather than invasive species. Our results increase our understanding of Darwin’s Naturalization Hypothesis because we are the first to show that novel species are more successful due to increased competitive ability. These results are consistent with many other studies that find a correlation between phylogenetic novelty and spread of invasive species, tapping competition as an important mechanism in invasion

Sensemaking as a framework for understanding how aspiring anti-racist leaders enact their learnings from a principal preparation program to disrupt the racial discipline gap

This dissertation emerges from an acknowledgement that robust research has shown that students of color receive a disproportionate number of disciplinary actions in American public schools compared to their white peers – a problem called the racial discipline gap. Few studies have studied school leaders’ sensemaking of the role of race in school disciplinary outcomes. Even fewer have considered how a specific type of leader – one known for aspiring to be anti-racist – makes sense of and frames the discipline gap and enacts the learnings from their principal preparation program to disrupt racial disparities in discipline outcomes. The perspective of the school principal has been found to be among the strongest predictor for rates of out-of-school suspension and expulsion. The findings from this study suggest that the sensemaking and problem-framing of the racial discipline gap by new school leaders is directly shaped by their identity as aspiring anti-racist leaders and the learnings from an anti-racist principal preparation program and their school contexts. The aspiring anti-racist leaders frame the problem at macro and micro levels, and enact both first and some second-order type change initiatives to interrupt factors of race from becoming patterns of race in school discipline. They demonstrate a limited approach to offering professional development to engage teachers in culturally relevant discussions and their formal data collection practices appear to be limited. This creates a blind spot for them in fully understanding the ways race intersects with discipline in their schools.Educational Administratio

Blessed yet bereft :a qualitative exploration of family member experience of heart, liver, and/or lung transplantation in the UK

PhD ThesisOrgan transplantation is currently considered the gold standard therapy for extending the lives of individuals with end-stage organ failure. At present, demand for donor organs significantly exceeds supply. To ensure best use of resources, transplant teams rigorously assess individuals before adding them to the waiting list. Individuals must demonstrate that they have a good social support network, often comprising close family members, to meet their informal care needs. Traditionally, social science research in the field of transplantation has focused overwhelmingly on organ recipients, clinicians, and donor families; comparatively little is known about the experience of family members providing such support. This thesis addresses this dearth of knowledge by exploring the experience of, and impact on, family members supporting relatives through the transplantation process. Potential participants were recruited to qualitative interviews through UK-based transplant charities. Twenty family members of individuals living with a transplant were interviewed retrospectively. Four family members of individuals on the transplant waiting list were interviewed longitudinally, on two occasions between six and nine months apart. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using a thematic approach. Data demonstrate that family members experienced significant disruption throughout the transplantation process, and that this had a notably detrimental effect on participants’ relationships, their wellbeing, and their sense of self. Accounts reveal that family members perform emotion work to manage this disruption, with varying degrees of success. Existing literature exploring disruption and emotion work among informal carers predominantly focuses on those supporting relatives with specific conditions, such as dementia and cancer. This thesis is among the first to explore disruption and emotion work in the context of transplantation and thus clarifies similarities between this and other care contexts, as well as issues that appear specific to, or particularly problematic for, family members supporting relatives through transplantation

Phylogenetically novel species are more successful due to high competitive ability at local and regional scales

Invasive species are widely considered to be a major threat to native biodiversity, however some studies suggest that exotic species seldom cause the extinction of native species, and may even increase biodiversity at some spatial scales. This leads to the question of whether exotic plant species that have naturalized to a new range are biologically distinct from their native counterparts. Here, we chose one common native and one common exotic plant species from each of five plant families, and evaluated their growth over one growing season for two proposed mechanisms of biological invasion. We evaluated the Enemy Release Hypothesis (ERH), which states that exotic species leave behind their predators and parasites in their introduced range, through an herbivore removal treatment. We addressed the Competitive Release Hypothesis (CRH), the idea that exotic species leave behind their specific competitors in their introduced range, through a competitor removal treatment. We hypothesized that if ERH and CRH are correct, then the herbivore removal and competitor removal treatments will benefit the native species more than the paired invasive species. However, we observed that our herbivore removal treatments did not affect most species’ growth, while the competitor removal treatment significantly improved the growth rate of several invasive species and only one native species. We also hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between phylogenetic novelty and response to our treatments, with more novel species being less affected by absence of herbivores and competitors. However we did not observe any significant relationship between phylogenetic novelty and response to our treatments. The lack of difference between native and invasive species does not support ERH or CRH, and suggests that there is not a fundamental difference in these species’ reactions to competition and herbivory. The absence of significant relationship between phylogenetic novelty and response to our treatments may suggest that more species would be required to observe this pattern. After another season of data collection, we believe our treatments will have an increased effect over that increased period of time. Also, we will be able to more accurately assess the response of our focal species to treatment by constructing demographic models to evaluate the response of population growth rate to our treatments

The Art of Community: Creativity at the Crossroads of Immigrant Cultures and Social Services

These are case studies that give credance to the belief that respect for one's own artistic traditions is critical to the acculturation process. The essays contained here offer clear and shining examples of how paying attention to culture and creativity can build self-confidence, nurture a productive and valuable citizenry, and even save a life. Through these stories, we begin to see that encouraging the practice of cultural traditions and participation in arts activities will help newcomers spread their wings and fly

Media framing of childhood obesity: a content analysis of UK newspapers from 1996-2014

Background: Media can influence public and policy-makers’ perceptions of causes of, and solutions to, public health issues through selective presentation and framing. Childhood obesity is a health issue with both individual-level and societal-level drivers and solutions, but public opinion and mass media representations of obesity have typically focused on individual-level framings, at the cost of acknowledgement of a need for regulatory action. Objective and setting: To understand the salience and framing of childhood obesity across 19 years of UK national newspaper content. Design and outcome measures: Quantitative content analysis of 757 articles about childhood obesity obtained from six daily and five Sunday newspapers. Articles were coded manually for definitions, drivers and potential solutions. Data were analysed statistically, including analysis of time trends and variations by political alignment of source. Results: The frequency of articles grew from a low of two in 1996 to a peak of 82 in 2008, before declining to 40 in 2010. Individual-level drivers (59.8%) and solutions (36.5%) were mentioned more frequently than societal-level drivers (28.3%) and solutions (28.3%) across the sample, but societal solutions were mentioned more frequently during the final 8 years, coinciding with a marked decline in yearly frequency of articles. Conclusions: Increased focus on societal solutions aligns with public health goals, but coincided with a reduction in the issue’s salience in the media. Those advocating public policy solutions to childhood obesity may benefit from seeking to raise the issue’s media profile while continuing to promote structural conceptualisations of childhood obesity