State University College at Geneseo
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Item Anti-Chinese Prejudice in Australia circa 1900: Content Analysis of Newspaper Articles(2016) Feng, Jimmy; Norris, DarrellThis paper examines the history of anti-Chinese prejudice in Australia between the mid-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century through analysis of news items. Trove, an online database aggregator created by the National Library of Australia, allows for a comprehensive survey of slurs and negative stereotypes characteristic of white Australia's image of the Chinese, their world, and their perceived shortcomings. In particular, jargon, slang and their context reveal the shifting scale, chronology and place-specific dimensions of prejudice between 1850 and 1919. References to fines imposed, gambling, and opium addiction were especially common, as was the label "savagery." Australia's five principal cities were quite similar in their overall incidence of negative references, whereas small towns were even more prejudiced. Anti-Chinese sentiment in print peaked between 1860 and 1889 and had substantially diminished by the second decade of the twentieth century. An element of Australia's rich and complicated history, a revealed narrative of bias against the Chinese surfaces that sheds light on the struggles and circumstances of a mostly impoverished and uneducated minority population looking to establish itself in a land of opportunity.Item Near-Death Experience and the Mystic Path(2016) Ryan, FeliciaMukerjee believes that mystical experiences are characterized by feelings of unbounded joy, self-affirmation, self-transcendence, and the mind being free. While these characteristics are not familiar in our society, certain events may trigger these unfamiliar feelings. Mukerjee’s review of paths to mystical experiences did not identify an experience such as near-death. Therefore this study examines four specific characteristics of mystical experiences defined by Mukerjee and looks for these characteristics in documentary evidence of people’s accounts of near-death experiences. The study found that near-death experiences, like other mystic experiences, are characterized by unbounded joy, self-affirmation, self-transcendence, and the mind being free.Item Not Just for “That Kind of Mom”: An ethnographic analysis of the perceived benefits of childbirth doulas in Rochester, New York(2016) Morgan, Kaitlyn; Medeiros, MelanieSince the origin of childbirth, a female attendant has accompanied a woman in labor. As time progressed, these attendants began to receive special training, and became professionally known as doulas. The twentieth century has brought an increasing demand for highly medicalized birth practices, with hospital births and caesarian sections at an all-time high. The ability of a woman's body to naturally have a baby has been overshadowed by these practices, forcing many women to feel it is necessary to seek these methods in order to have a safe birth. This ultimately creates a realm of fear surrounding childbirth in America. Alternative birth practices, such as those where doulas are present, may be able to become more common if increased knowledge of doulas is available. Studying doulas allows for the identification of factors that contribute to a woman's choice to use a doula. The purpose of this study is to (1) gain a better understanding of the roles of doulas and their contributions to childbirth; (2) collect personal testimonies from women who have chosen to have doula-attended births regarding why they felt that was the best option; (3) acquire the doula's perspective on factors influencing a woman's decision to use a doula; (4) investigate through qualitative and ethnographic methods the perceived benefits of doula-attended births for both women and hospitals, including the ways in which hospitals accommodate for the presence of a doula.Item A CHILE RECEPTION: Couchsurfing’s Diffusion and Context Amidst Geographical Diversity(2016) Villalón, Sofia; Norris, DarrellCouchsurfing's Diffusion and Context Amidst Geographical Diversity Sofia Villalón Couchsurfing.com was launched in 2004 and now has over twelve million members in over 200 thousand cities worldwide. Its purpose is to match hosts and their visitors, offering the latter hospitality and simple accommodation at no cost. There are 60 thousand Couchsurfing.com hosts in Chile, spanning the country from the Atacama Desert to the Strait of Magellan. This paper is based on the site's participation rate in 15 Chilean provinces. Detailed biographical data for all hosts is available including age, gender, and occupation. Unsurprisingly, participation is highest in Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile's metro poles, but elsewhere it is relatively even with no evidence of contagious diffusion outward form the two biggest cities to Chile's most remote settings. My paper explores the contextual base of participation reflected in Couchsurfers' profiles, and examines the profiles of visitors in Chile's sharply contrasting destination.