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An Ethnography of a Digital Archive: A Usability Study of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) (open access)

An Ethnography of a Digital Archive: A Usability Study of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA)

Digital language archives are used for the preservation of documented language data, such as video and voice recordings, transcriptions, survey data, and ethnographic fieldnotes. This data is most often used for research and linguists and anthropologists are generally heavily involved in the creation of language archives. Ideally, Indigenous communities that are represented in the archives are also able to access their data, but this is not always the case, especially if poor internet access and lack of technological know-how prevent archive use. In addition, western epistemologies are embedded in archival logics, exacerbating the issues surrounding Indigenous access and pointing to the need for a decolonizing archival design that centers the needs of its users. Using ethnographic research methods and a decolonizing framework, I conducted a usability study on the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) to uncover the cultural-based meanings that inform AILLA use. Using linguistics and anthropology listservs, I recruited research participants for a Qualtrics survey and conducted semi-structured interviews that explore the user perspective on AILLA. I analyzed AILLA's Google Analytics data and used qualitative and quantitative research methods to build upon the previous literature in user-centered design approaches to language archives. As one of …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Ewing, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library
Religious Affiliation and Sexual Permissiveness Over Time (open access)

Religious Affiliation and Sexual Permissiveness Over Time

In this study, I analyze the relationship between sexual permissiveness and affiliation with a fundamentalist religion and how this relationship has changed over time. I first consider previous research that reviews how religious affiliation, religiosity, and religious fundamentalism shapes sex attitudes and, therefore sexual permissiveness. I then review existing studies that discuss what factors influence permissiveness toward different sexual behaviors. Next, I discuss the mechanisms of religious institutions that influence sexual permissiveness. Prior literature motivates my research question as there is a lack of studies that explore sexual permissiveness across religious affiliations. This study fills a void in the existing literature by exploring the gap in sexual permissiveness between religious affiliations and how that gap has changed over time. After considering the current literature, I introduce a hypothesis exploring the relationship between sexual permissiveness and affiliation with fundamentalist religion. This study performs OLS regression using secondary data from the General Social Survey (GSS) that describes respondents' religiosity, religious affiliation, and attitudes towards sex. The study's findings show that affiliation with more fundamentalist groups is significantly correlated with more conservative sex attitudes reflecting lower levels of sexual permissiveness. The results also suggest that the gap in sexual permissiveness between those that …
Date: December 2021
Creator: Ward, Emma
System: The UNT Digital Library
Static or Evolving? The Racial Principal-Policy Gap (open access)

Static or Evolving? The Racial Principal-Policy Gap

Empirical studies have shown that white racial attitudes tend to predict racial policy support. It has also been established that the relationship between whites' espoused racial tolerance and their support for ameliorative racial policies is imperfect, due to the principal-policy gap which characterized misalignment between individuals' espoused values for racial equity and their limited support for policies aimed at achieving those ends. Less consideration however, has been given to how the principal-policy gap changes over time. Using data from over 14,000 respondents who participated in the General Social Survey from 1994 through 2018, I show that the principal-policy gap is persistent, and that distances between principal and policy decline and expand over time. Using OLS regression models to analyze a sample of white adults, I find that the link between individuals' expressed liberal racial attitudes and their support for racial policies changed over the 24-year span. A noticeable narrowing of the principal-policy gap is also evident in the latter years of the sample. The reduction in the gap from 2014 through 2018 suggests that the influence of social movements like BLM may have been driving this trend.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Joseph, Curtis Brenon
System: The UNT Digital Library
Contradictory Attitudes towards Partisan Issues: Abortion and Gun Control (open access)

Contradictory Attitudes towards Partisan Issues: Abortion and Gun Control

In this study, I examine how self-reported religiosity predicts political opinion toward abortion and gun control. In particular, I examine how self-reported religiosity relates to individuals' inconsistent attitudes on these two issues where liberal attitudes are held toward one issue, but conservative attitudes are held toward the other. Most commonly, these inconsistent attitudes are found among individuals who hold pro-life (conservative) and pro-gun control (liberal) views. Using data from the 2018 General Social Survey, I find that religiosity significantly predicts these inconsistent attitudes regarding abortion and gun control. This suggests that religious ethics regarding life and death can offer a partial explanation for inconsistent attitudes toward partisan issues.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Pinney, Sarah
System: The UNT Digital Library
Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, and Gender: Analyzing Gender at Raves (open access)

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, and Gender: Analyzing Gender at Raves

Doing, undoing, and redoing gender debates have established the omnirelevance and performativity of gender. Yet, little is known about the ways that individuals "do" gender in spaces that provide the opportunity for norms to be disrupted, such as subcultures. This study offers an empirical investigation into the performance of gender within the subculture known as EDM (electronic dance music) culture. Using 20 in-depth interviews that were conducted virtually, I analyze the way ravers experience and give meaning to gender within the EDM culture. I find that individuals within the EDM culture can participate in the doing, undoing, and redoing of gender and do so through the embodiment of their subcultural beliefs and ideology, known as PLUR (peace, love, unity, and respect). I argue that the embodiment of PLUR is gendered, and describe the body-reflexive practices that are associated with PLUR.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Rivera, Zoriliz
System: The UNT Digital Library

Intersectional Analysis of Perceived Racism as a Determinant of Children's Mental Health

Youth in the United States are experiencing a steep increase in mental health issues. Concurrently, unique political, economic and social dynamics in the U.S. make the circumstances of nonwhite children's mental health partially contingent on experiences of racism. In this study, I examine the relationship between racial minority children's mental health and perceived racism, while also examining the moderating effects of gender on this relationship. I first review prior research which suggest that racism is a salient determinant of several health outcomes among racial minorities and racial minority children, including depression and anxiety. I then review research on both gender and racial socialization and posit possible implications of these differentials on mental health. Considering both the racialized and gendered factors contributing to youth's mental health outcomes, this study fills a gap in previous research by exploring the differences by gender and race in the effect of perceived racism on children's mental health. I use data from the National Survey of Children's Health from 2016 to 2019. Using average marginal effects, calculated from a series of logistic regression models predicting depression, anxiety, behavioral and emotional problems, I find support for previous research which suggests that perceived racism predicts poor mental health …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Monasterio, Ronaldo
System: The UNT Digital Library