Keep Denton Beautiful (KDB) is inspired by Keep America Beautiful's model of community engagement to create a clean, beautiful, and vibrant city. The community mural initiative, Artscapes, aims to enliven public spaces, abate graffiti, and inspire community members to keep Denton, Texas, clean and beautiful. The goals of this research project are to understand the impact of Artscapes initiative, community perceptions of public art, and find ways KDB can better align future mural projects with the needs and desires of community members. By talking to artists that have worked with KDB, members of the mural art committee, and community members from the neighborhoods that have existing murals, this research provides input from these three populations to continue creating public art for the Denton community. I discuss the context of my work through Lefebvre's concept of "Right to the City," Rafael Schacter's opposition between sanctioned and non-sanctioned murals, Bourdieu's concept of symbolic and social capital, and David Harvey's work on neoliberalism and the entrepreneurial city.

Beginning May of 2013 and ending in September, I worked with Grace After Fire (Grace), a virtual nonprofit organization that focuses on issues related to female veterans. Grace’s mission is to provide female veterans with the means to gain knowledge, insight and self-renewal. Grace’s mission is accomplished through peer support and resource referral. The aim of my thesis project was to conduct an analysis of Grace’s peer support system, Table Talk: Color Me Camo (Table Talk). Because Table Talk is a fairly new program for Grace, just over a year old, the outreach coordinators were eager to learn: 1) if they were indeed meeting their mission of empowering female veterans, and 2) the point-of-view of the peer facilitators who conduct Table Talk. To help Grace gain perspective, I interviewed women who had previously attended Table Talk, as well as peer facilitators responsible for coordinating the peer support system-all of whom are female veterans. The following is their story.

Several studies have indicated that American Indian students in the United States higher education system confront unique challenges that derive from a legacy of colonialism and assimilationist policies (Huff 1997). Several scholars, American Indian and non-Native alike, have explored the effects of this history upon students in higher education (Brayboy 2004; Guillory and Wolverton 2008; Waterman and Lindley 2013). Very few, however, have explored the role of the educators of American Indian students, and most of the literature focuses on K-12 educational settings (McCarty and Lee 2014; Yong and Hoffman 2014). This thesis examines exploratory user research conducted to generate a foundational understanding of educators of American Indian students in higher education. Utilizing methods from design anthropology and user experience, semi-structured interviews and think-aloud sessions were conducted, almost exclusively virtually, for 17 participants. This research was conducted for a client, Fire & Associates, as part of the applied thesis process. Findings revealed a complex web of needs for educators of American Indian students in higher education related to teaching diverse students, the use of media and technology in the classroom, and the process of networking among other educators. The research culminated in content and design implications for the Fire & …

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the value of visual research methods to applied anthropology in the context of exploratory research with farmers in Ethiopia. The three methods of photo-elicitation, participatory photography, and ethnographic film, enrich and expand ethnographic methods to support the client's objective of supporting farmers. The applied project constructs a narrative from the local perspective to help consumers learn more about farmers' lives. The research focuses on specific farmers, and their experiences with direct fair trade and coffee farming. The client sees the application of research produced by ethnographic and visual methods as a good direction not only for his company, but the Fair Trade Industry as a whole.

This thesis investigates how to create an environment for organizational change within the Market Research Department at the Gangler Company (a US-based consumer products company). I explore what is influencing the current cultural environment and which of those influencers can be shifted to encourage organizational change toward the “ideal” culture that the organization has identified. Using new institutionalism as the theoretical approach, I discuss the significance of institutional forces (such as the economy and the rise in technology) on the cultural elements (i.e. behaviors, ideas, material artifacts and social structures) in the Market Research Department. Lastly, I show that by understanding those institutional influences, I can better assess what cultural elements can be shifted and which cannot. Of the cultural elements that are able to be shifted, I recommend three interventions that the organization should employ: 1) from a contrive culture to a culture of candor, 2) from a culture of division to a culture of cohesion, and 3) from a culture of knowing to a culture of learning.

There is limited anthropological research on inclusive play and universally designed playgrounds and this study aims to make some contribution in this field. This was a qualitative research study guided by anthropological theory and methods, conducted for For the Love of the Lake (FTLOTL) Foundation. FTLOTL is a non-profit organization located in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to White Rock Lake Park's maintenance. In 2014, FTLOTL became of the view that the park's current playgrounds lacked accessibility for differently-abled children. Therefore, FTLOTL decided to undertake a renovation project of Flag Pole Hill playground to incorporate inclusiveness and diversity in the playground design. The overarching objective of this exploratory, ethnographic needs assessment was to provide insights for an inclusive playground using universal design for families with special needs children. Fourteen parents, each with at least one child having physical, social, or intellectual disabilities in the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Texas metroplex were interviewed. The interviews were semi structured, each lasting for about an hour and were digitally recorded. Later these audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and then coded using Dedoose. The coded data was synthesized into coherent themes and sub-themes and finally organized into formal research findings. Observations were made of existing universally designed …

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 observation revealed that donors to this clinic were concerned about the potential impact of Congressional healthcare reform yet did not consider federal policy a strong influence on their donations. Rather, donors cited dedication to local giving and personal connections with the clinic as their primary motivations. These motivations suggest the value of viewing the clinic-donor relationship as a relationship of reciprocity. From this framework, the research identifies opportunities for the clinic to reciprocate donor generosity while expanding services in response to a growing need. Insights from the research will guide the clinic's response to federal policy changes and support the clinic's vision of becoming a national model for integrative care.

Farm to school programs are becoming a popular intervention to address childhood obesity. The hope is to prevent later chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can result from eating high-fat/high-calorie diets that are low in consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. This study explores the impacts of one such program, Farm to Keiki, on students, their families, and teachers at two Native Hawaiian preschools on the island of Kauaʽi, Hawaiʽi. This program combined lessons about plants and nutrition with gardening at school and tastetesting in the classroom. Rooted in critical medical anthropology, this study utilized a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand these impacts, as well as the historical and cultural contexts that have contributed to dietary changes among Native Hawaiians. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, families and teachers described how the program encouraged the children to try new foods and eat more produce, and how the children demonstrated new knowledge about plants and healthy eating. Participants also spoke of ways in which their own knowledge and eating habits changed, and families reported carrying over many of the program's activities at home by gardening and preparing meals together. Additionally, participants offered valuable feedback on …

This paper examines the concept of safety as it encompasses the personal and technological spheres as imagined by a group of active duty service members, veterans, a police officer, and civilians, as well as the agency exercised by those with military or police backgrounds when it comes to safety technology. A group of seventeen individuals took part in a battlefield simulation to test a wearable junctional tourniquet created by ARMR Systems, LLC, an innovative advancement in tourniquet technology. After the simulation, participants were interviewed, surveyed, and took part in a focus group to determine not only product suitability but also to explore the underlying reasons for their recommendations for product changes. Results showed that those with military or police background performed safety rituals prior to duty and exercised agency in the desire to obtain the best possible personal safety devices and technology to be used for themselves and their comrade-in-arms. All participants expressed concerns for their safety in regards to technology in general, specifically, the hacking and use of personal data and what is perceived as lack of governmental oversight. Almost all of the changes to improve product safety, comfort, and utility were adapted. The topics discovered during the course …

The client for this study, the Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE), was interested in the use of anthropological methods to examine the experiences of people who use psychedelics beyond the clinical setting. Through collaborative discussions with the client, we decided that the central questions guiding this research are to understand the various reasons why people consume psychedelic substances across the United States as well as examine the self-reported influences of psychedelics in various areas of participants' life and identity. Participants were recruited using stratified sampling and were given a confidential, online survey that also provided an option to arrange a semi-structured interview. In total, there were 103 completed survey responses and 25 interviews. The results of this research indicate that the reasons for participants' psychedelic use often change over time from strictly recreational or out of curiosity to intentions based on therapeutic and psychospiritual development. Additionally, the majority of both survey and interview participants believed their psychedelic use to have had a transformative influence on their health and well-being, perception of nature, identity, spirituality, and creative expression of art and music. Another theme uncovered in this research is the impacts of punitive drug laws on psychedelic use such as …

The Bonton and Ideal neighborhoods in Dallas Texas, developed in the early 1900s, experienced physical and social decay throughout the 1980s. Neighborhood organizations and resident activism were vital to the rebirth of the community in the 1990s. Current revitalization efforts taking place there have been a source of contention as the neighborhood continues to overcome inequalities created by decades of racialized city planning initiatives. This thesis focuses on how the structuring structure of whiteness has historically affected, and continues to affect, the neighborhoods of Ideal and Bonton, as well as acts to identify how black residents have navigated their landscape and increased their collective capital through neighborhood activism.

In this thesis, I explore strategies used by the local timber industry to influence forest policy on the Black Hills National Forest. These strategies include leveraging political pressure, proposing alternative interpretations of existing laws, and first requesting and then rejecting scientific data. Discursive strategies used by the timber industry to influence US Forest Service policy are compared and contrasted with those used by the environmental movement. The paper explores when and why stakeholders use different discursive strategies to influence forest policy.