2003 - 2004 School Year

To view their research project, click on the title of each paper. 

Downsizing Masculinity
Gender, Family, and Fatherhood in Post-Industrial Galesburg
Tom Walton

My research project is an ethnographic study of several issues surrounding the impending closure of the local Maytag plant. I conducted interviews with fathers employed at the plant to explore how conceptions of masculinity, fatherhood, and family are being negotiated during a traumatic, transitory period. The informants were mostly white males varying in age that had been, or currently are participants in a nuclearstructured family. I was most interested in the ways that men who work as industrial laborers conceive of their masculine identity, and how those conceptions inform their roles as fathers and the gendered organization of their family lives. I attempted to establish the extent to which these men were influenced by the normative “breadwinner” ideology, and to gain a clear understanding of the operation of intra-family gender hierarchies.
     The men I interviewed maintain masculine identities that lack complete hegemonic claims and produce gendered senses of the self enacted, contested, and constructed contextually. The informants invariably expressed optimism about a future without Maytag, and vowed to keep their families intact. Clearly, though, these men were experiencing what I term corporate/political emasculation. Industry has been integral to the discourse on the American dream, a discourse that maps in masculine terms a route to middle-class comfort and status. For these men, the symbiotic relationship between corporations and politicians has subverted that discourse and forsaken what they understand to be quintessential masculine American values. However, workers’ lives are not wholly at the mercy of de-industrialization, and judging by the informants’ accounts, the future entails a complex reassertion and renegotiation of gender identities.

Mythical Histories and Visible Realities:
Negotiating ritual traditions and changing lifestyles in an urban Brahmin community
Rachana Rao Umashankar

     Change and movement it seems have taken on a new momentum in the past few decades, characterized by newly forged and energized global networks of influence. The Third World especially has become a focus of this discussion, often viewed as the recipient of change and subject to an ever-growing corporate, Western hegemony. But what is the nature of this change that the Third World is “subjected” to? Is change thrust upon communities whose identities either melt into a larger homogenous character or are left crushed and floundering after a futile and uncompromising defence? Or do these communities play an active part in their transformation, taking cues, perhaps, from larger social trends but reserving the right to choose their direction of change? It is with questions like these in mind that I went to do fieldwork in a Brahmin community in Bangalore.

The Most un-American Event Ever
Deindustrialization & The Maytag Sellout
Randy Colwell

     On October 11, 2002, Maytag workers in Galesburg, Illinois were given a letter informing them that the plant would be closing by the end of 2004. The news of the plant closing hit the community like a shockwave. Knowing that Maytag is leaving hurts; but the fact that Maytag is leaving for Mexico is what prompted many displaced Maytag workers to deem the move “The Most Un-American Event Ever.”
     Many workers at Maytag will have a hard time coping with the closing, as there are few entry-level jobs in the area that pay as much as that of the Maytag plant. About 2,000 Maytag employees will be out of a job because of the relocation. While the Galesburg situation is a tragedy, it is not uncommon. Job outsourcing is occurring all over the United States.
     Large corporations are powerful, as is the government, and many feel helpless against these seemingly abstract forces. Yet, while it is difficult to find solutions to such massive problems as deindustrialization, every individual can contribute to ending the epidemic. The American People must fight back to ensure that policies that promote deindustrialization do not continue.

Teen Pregnancy. Personal or Political?
Kimberly Deschamps

     Teen pregnancy has been a matter of social concern for the past several decades. By large, the data dealing with the issue is quantitative in value and focuses on linking teen pregnancy to issues such as poverty, class, race, education and STD’s. There is little data that attempts to understand what issues are important to the young mothers themselves.
     In this paper I suggest that this previous research has by and large excluded teenage mothers’ voices from the debate about teenage pregnancy.
     By interviewing several young mothers (who had children as teenagers), I found they had many interesting responses to the data on this subject. I also found several contrasts between the views of young mothers and the health professionals I have interviewed who deal with teen pregnancy.
     This research acknowledges three different perceptions between the two groups on the issue of teen pregnancy. This study will not attempt to claim that any one perception of the issue is more valid or valuable than the other. However, I do argue that because of the lack of research conducted about the young mothers, this field of research is and has been incomplete. My hope is that this study will be a stepping stone that will launch scholars to research further into this aspect of teen pregnancy and to answer why these young mothers have been previously excluded from the study of teen pregnancy.

Coping Strategies of the Disabled Poor
Darin Dunphy

     After starting work as a personal assistant for a person with a disability, I decided to examine the effect of poverty on people living with a disability. I asked myself how could people earning well below the poverty line and disabled possible survive with no one questioning it? I interviewed people who were born disabled and those who became disabled later in life. My brother was born with a disability and currently lives alone, so I talked to him informally a few times as well. I focused on working class families and individuals. In the course of my research, I was able to discover the ways in which those with disabilities cope with day to day poverty, and if they were receiving federal aid and Medicaid, was it a help or a hindrance to their lives. The people I interviewed were all helpful, but I was surprised that only about half felt negatively about federally imposed poverty. Difficulty in finding employment was a common theme amongst those with a disability. Besides interviewing those with a disability, I was also able to interview a worker at a local center that assists the disabled in finding employment. Other interviews proved difficult to get; primarily those affiliated with state and federal agencies. I also encountered many disabled individuals who felt that they were stigmatized by society, although I was unable to ascertain if it was true or not.

Cell Phone Overdrive
The Evolving Etiquette of Cell Phone Use
Alaina M. Guzman

     Cell phones are everywhere around us—or so it seems. If a person doesn’t personally own a cell phone, chances are very good that they know someone who does own a cell phone. Many people can remember a day where a conversation with someone was interrupted by a ringing phone. In face, it wasn’t that long ago when an interruption was caused by a land phone (otherwise known as a home phone). Due to the invention of cell phones, are now interruptive in various places in society. Phones are ringing in movie theatres, restaurants, public transportation, professional environments, and even classes.

The Workers Experience:
The Effects of Deindustrialization on Factory Workers Across the Job Spectrum
Christine M. Hawkinson

     Deindustrialization is devastating to workers and communities left behind by big corporations as most ethnographic studies of specific factory closings will report. Although this is true, these studies tend to focus mainly on the situations and experiences of the assembly-line workers while rarely acknowledging the views of the other workers who also lose their jobs such as: office workers, low level managers and supervisors, and engineers. This study is a comparison of the views and experiences of employees across the job spectrum from two factories in Galesburg, Illinois that are dealing with the effects of deindustrialization. Specifically, it is an attempt to gain an understanding of the workers political views and how they are related to ideas of work ethic and identity in the context of the industrial job hierarchy.

The Presentation and Management of the Vegetarian/Vegan Identity
Allison M. Kelly

     This study examines how vegetarians and vegans define themselves and how they negotiate this identity with their actions and interactions with others. Vegetarians and vegans were interviewed regarding their consumptive choices, motivations, social relationships, family relationships, concerns about how they present and define themselves and concerns about how others present and define themselves. The tensions subjects described are examined using the framework of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to the maintenance of an identity.

Non-Corporate Specialty Shops
Strangers Engaged in Trade
Jamal Lahiani

     This ethnographic research looks at two locally owned eateries, their relationship with each other and their presence in a micro arena rather than in the large competitive economy of corporations and franchises. I decided to participate and observe two locally owned shops of downtown Galesburg –Uncle Billy’s Bakery/Cornucopia and Innkeepers Fresh Roasted Coffee. I was a regular customer at the former, and an employee of the latter. I used these relationships with the two shops to reveal the intricacies between the rotational, shop owner –patron –and employee relationship. I was mostly interested in how the roles were perceived by each of those three parties and how those layered relationships were stressed or alleviated when involved in interactions. I tried to understand these layers to get better acquainted with the responsibility and the role of one locally owned shop in cooperation with another locally owned business.
     The shops that I scrutinized belong to a similar small niche market that relies very heavily on regular customers who are familiar with both shops. The participants expressed that regardless of not wanting to step on another’s toes, there won’t always be direct competition. They belong to the Seminary St. family of shops, all work towards similar goals, share similar resources, and have similar trimmings and ambience. Being related as they are, a certain healthy cooperation also floats around, as well as overlapping and reciprocal tension. The owners of these shops consider their role not only as owners but as customers and show that the customer always has an important role in mitigating tension between the parties who experience personal investments. Thus, the Seminary St. family qualifies as a unique center of trade.

How Level is the Playing Field?
The Relationship between Illinois Education Funding and the Disparities in Achievement Mindset among Twelfth Grade Students
April Joy-Marie Morgan

My research focuses on the direct effect Illinois education policies have on students’ academic achievement and college competitiveness at the twelfth grade level in the urban, suburban, and industrial communities of Illinois. In addition to this, I will address the relationship between unequal school funding to that of unequal academic competitiveness for college, and the negative ramifications it holds for equal opportunity in college admission. In conducting this research, I assess Illinois public school funding policies in addition to the newly implemented programs under the No Child Left Behind legislation, and suggest, in the conclusion, policy changes that would alleviate educational inequities.

Are You Knox?
Examining the College Decision Making Process of the Knox College Class of 2007
Mary O’Malley

The college decision making process is an experience shared by thousands of high school seniors each year. How does one choose what college is the right match? Through peer social networks, recommendations, visits, and publications, students find out what Knox is, but how does one decide ‘I am Knox.” In surveying and interviewing the Knox College Class of 2007, first year students revealed that they ended up choosing Knox for three primary reasons: academic reputation, financial aid, size; as well as intangible factors such as a gut instinct.

The Influence of Music and Spirituality on Cherokee Cultural Identity
Sarah E. Poole

     I spent winter term on the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee Reservation) in North Carolina in order to study extant forms of traditional music as well as any contemporary alterations of these forms. To gain this information, I conducted twelve formal interviews, one focus group, had numerous meetings with my mentor on the reservation, attended powwow-style drum group rehearsals and performances, attended church service, and volunteered briefly at the Cherokee Youth Center.
     I hoped to find that the cultural morals and values of the tribe were embedded within the songs. While this didn’t turn out to be exactly true, I did learn that these aspects are conveyed in the spirituality inherently embedded in, and the performance of, each musical form. I also learned that the genre of music one chooses to listen to, participate in, or perform affects the formation and perception of their cultural identity.
     My research is unique to the field because it is the first I have found to do an in depth study of the spirituality behind each musical genre. My paper is an attempt to bridge the gap in literature between the anthropological literature on the Cherokee and that on ethnomusicological research design.

Learning Gender Construction in Nepal
The impact and potential of women’s studies in a patriarchal society
Bipasana Sakya

     Although Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu is slowly but gradually becoming exposed to the influences of the western centered global community, aspects of the rich historical cultures of its ethically diverse inhabitants continue to be evident in all walks of life. Not the least of ancient Nepal that remains influential today is the culture of patriarchy which dominates kinship and social relations, educational and occupational opportunities and the rituals and ceremonies that are central to life in every strata of society. However in recent years, the importance of increasing knowledge and awareness on gender and women’s issues has been receiving much attention in Nepal, largely due to the increasing presence of national and international NGOs dedicated to those causes.
     A little less than a decade ago Padma Kanya Women’s College in Kathmandu began the first women’s studies program in the kingdom; a one year post graduate diploma course. This research paper examines what this program teaches and how the introduction of its feminist ideology has more personally affected women so totally within a patriarchal society. Research results suggest that while many women do aim to use the degree that they earn to advance their career in the non-profit sector, many also discussed their views on empowerment and the social construction of gender as a result of taking the program. The experience of these women prove the significant role Gender and Women’s Studies plays in enlightening its students to see gender as a social construct and empowering them to voice their opinions on gender discrimination and to foster attitudes and behaviors, within themselves and others, that would lead to a more gender equal society.

Sexuality and Education
Influences and Construction of Sexual Activity and Education
Dani Smith

     My research is focused on sexuality, sexual orientation and sex education as received from trusted sources or in institutional settings. Many of the Knox women I interviewed received the basis of their sex education from their mothers and disregarded the education received in institutional settings (i.e. church and school), and found that they were more apt to listen to someone they knew and trusted. I invited these women to define sexuality as what it meant to them, and while that means working with a loose definition with broad standards (such as the approach to sex and contraception, level of comfort with partners and sexual activity), giving these women the opportunity to define sexuality in their own terms allowed them a greater freedom to consider their own sexuality and to report a more fluid sexual orientation than the rigid definitions of heterosexual and homosexual. While interviewing these women, I found that the heterosexual bias in sex education (and in my own research) makes it difficult for people engaging in same-sex relations to be adequately prepared for sexual activity and to protect themselves from STD’s, in part because such a large focus of sex education is on pregnancy prevention which does not take into consideration same-sex partners, but mostly because same-sex sexuality is still considered deviant or largely ignored by many researchers and educators.
    

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