Browsing by Author "Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member"

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"The City Evangelical Dude Route to Dudeness": Examining a Discourse of Hegemonic Masculinity in an Urban Megachurch.
(2010-10-29) Fitzwater, Laura; Sinikka Elliott, Committee Chair; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Stacy De Coster, Committee Member
Difficult dialogues: How white male graduate students in student affairs preparation programs make meaning of their whiteness, white privilege, and multiculturalism
(2010-04-12) Olson, Barry Alan; Audrey Jaeger, Committee Chair; Marc Grimmett, Committee Member; Kathy Lohr, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Joy Gaston-Gayles, Committee Member
OLSON, BARRY ALAN. Difficult Dialogues: How white male graduate students in student affairs preparation programs make meaning of their whiteness, white privilege, and multiculturalism. (Under the direction of Audrey Jaeger). The purpose of this narrative case study was to understand how white male graduate students in student affairs preparation programs make meaning of their whiteness, white privilege, and multiculturalism. Through the use of the participantâ€™s own words, the results showed that these nine participants from the Southeast had a limited understanding of whiteness as it related to any racial conception, often limited to the negative components of their racial makeup, or even an obliviousness to whiteness in general. White privilege was understood more clearly, however the participants often were in positions where they could choose to act in favor of a person of color, and instead chose not to act. Finally, the participants gained a significant amount of value from personal connections through their own informal experiences and formal activities, but the most growth seemed to occur within a classroom setting focusing on multiculturalism and diversity. The findings indicate that white male graduate students in student affairs preparation programs could benefit from required coursework in the areas of diversity and multiculturalism, where exposure to race, culture, and difference would broaden their limited experience base. Within this study, a model for the social transformation of racial identity was proposed as a way to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Using the concepts of white privilege, multicultural competency, and emancipation, the proposed model helps to explain the components within developing those difficult dialogues among white males, but also across racial boundaries.
Dirty Jobs: How Welfare-to-Work Caseworkers do the Dirty Work of Welfare
(2008-07-14) Taylor, Tiffany; Jeffrey Leiter, Committee Chair; Martha Crowley, Committee Member; L. Richard Della Fave, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Barbara Risman, Committee Member
Does It Matter if You're Black or White? Skin Color and Psychological Well-being Among Middle-school Youth
(2006-08-02) Williams, Zaynah Ayisha; Maxine Thompson, Committee Chair; Melvin Thomas, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member
The purpose of this research is to examine how dissatisfaction with skin color, as a component of perceived physical attractiveness, is associated with adolescent depression and self-esteem, controlling for skin color, beliefs toward skin color, gender, socioeconomic status, perceived discrimination, and peer and teacher stressors. Using a diverse sample of 388 middle-school students, I employ ordinary least squares regression to test hypotheses about the gender-specific and skin color specific effects of dissatisfaction with skin color on adolescent depression and self-esteem. The results show that dissatisfaction with skin color is positively related to depression and negatively related to self-esteem among adolescents. However, black or brown-skinned African American youth who are dissatisfied with their skin color experience higher levels of depression in comparison to white youth who are dissatisfied with their skin color. Implications of the findings are discussed.
"It Was the Single Most Important Decision in My Life": The Use of Liberal Feminist Accounts among Childfree Women.
(2010-11-03) Powell, Rachel; Sinikka Elliott, Committee Chair; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Brett Clark, Committee Member
Leaving the Street Alone: Cultural Training for Upward Mobility at an After-School Program
(2007-08-28) Froyum Roise, Carissa May; Barbara J. Risman, Committee Co-Chair; Maxine Thompson, Committee Co-Chair; L. Richard Della Fave, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member
Perpetuating Color-Blind Ideology: Middle School Children and Their Understanding of Race
(2008-08-08) Bellota, Angella A.; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Barbara Risman, Committee Co-Chair; Maxine Thompson, Committee Chair
Race, Gender, and Bullying Behavior: The Role of Perceived Stereotypes
(2006-08-18) Farrar, Brandy Deneen; Maxine Thompson, Committee Chair; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Feinian Chen, Committee Member
In recent years, bullying among middle-school youth and adolescents has become a serious problem in American schools (Nansel et al. 2001). Researchers from a variety of different disciplines attempt to identify factors associated with bullying in order to develop effective intervention programs. However, many findings in relation to race, gender, and bullying are largely inconclusive. The present study employs a social constructionist framework to understand race and gender differences in adolescent bullying. Specifically, I explore how the meanings associated with race and gender in the form of popular stereotypes influence bullying behavior. The findings reported here are from the Gender and Middle School study conducted among 535 adolescents attending middle school in the southeast. The results of the analyses show significant relationships between race, gender, and bullying. Black students (compared to white and other minority) and male students (compared to female) reported higher frequencies of bullying. Further, perceiving that others stereotype you increases the frequency of participating in bullying behavior and explains the relationship between race and bullying. Lastly, the stereotype influence is greater for black males in the study than the effect for white males. These findings have implications for education officials as well as theory on the influence of stereotypes on adolescent behavior.
Social Movement Framing and the Reproduction of Inequality: Immigrant Restrictionists Constructing Virtual Selves on the Internet
(2009-09-14) Bloch, Katrina Rebecca; Jeffrey Leiter, Committee Member; Steve McDonald, Committee Member; Richard Della Fave, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Michael Schulman, Committee Chair
This study analyzes the websites and discussion forums of immigrant restrictionist groups. The research combines the literature on social movement framing and theories of the generic processes of inequality. The research questions include: (1) How are the emotional framings of an organizationÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s website and discussion forums similar and how are they different? (2) How do the organizations use gendered symbols in their social movement frames, and (3) How do the immigrant restrictionist organizations construct a Latino/citizen binary? In total, 91 websites and 200 threads from three discussion forums are included in the study. To answer the first research question, I focus on the website and discussion forum for the organization, Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC). The results suggest that the main website presents a guise of rationality, while participants of the discussion forum openly discuss emotions. In particular, participants privilege powerful emotions. To examine the second and third research questions, I analyze all the websites and forum threads. The organizations and forum participants portray immigrants as part of an invasion that threatens the sovereignty of the nation. Many of the groups and forum members claim to rely on legal distinctions between immigrants, but they often conflate Latinos with immigrants. Further, immigrant restrictionists discuss Latinos as if they are a homogenous group, as opposed to individuals with different national heritage and class backgrounds. In contrast, immigrant restrictionists portray themselves as soldiers who are protecting the nation and mothers who are protecting their children. Immigrant restrictionists also argue that politicians and corporations are greedy, but they fail to challenge the system at large. Instead of advocating a larger redistribution of wealth that would provide more stability for the working and middle class, immigrant restrictionists attempt to maintain the rights and privileges that they perceive illegal immigrants to threaten. Immigrant restrictionists reinforce an achievement ideology, whereby hard work should lead to success. However, group members argue that immigrants receive special privileges for breaking the law, while citizens are unable to achieve success through hard work. The immigrant restrictionists make sense of their position by drawing on widely held and available meanings related to race and gender. These ideologies influence their construction of an ideal national identity, a white male. The dissertation adds to the sociological literature in three ways. First, it combines the scholarship on social movement framing and the generic processes of inequality. The social movement frames draw from and reinforce group distinctions that legitimate the reproduction of inequality. Secondly, the study contributes to the understudied importance of emotional framing and gendered frames within social movement theory. Immigrant restrictionists privilege emotions associated with men, such as rationality, power, and pride. Further, the gendered symbols of soldiers and mothers are emotionally powerful symbols within the United States, because of ideals regarding what it means to be a man or woman. Finally, I show how the emotional framing is important for legitimating inequality. The immigrant restrictionists have identity stakes in being race neutral, but simultaneously say things that marginalize racial minorities. Thus, relying on claims of rationality, using specific discourses (e.g. anchor baby vs. infant), and using stigma transference are ways in which the group members engage in emotional framing activities that allow them to maintain positive self-appraisals despite contradictions in their social movement frames.
Talk About Country Clubs: Ideology and the Reproduction of Privilege
(2004-04-07) Sherwood, Jessica Holden; Barbara J. Risman, Committee Chair; Susan Ostrander, Committee Member; Amy Halberstadt, Committee Member; Rick Della Fave, Committee Member; Michael Schwalbe, Committee Member; Don Tomaskovic-Devey, Committee Member
This dissertation reports on interviews with members of five exclusive country clubs in the Northeastern United States. At these clubs, membership is extended only by selective invitation after a subjective screening process. The clubs have long histories of racial-ethnic homogeneity, but they now display some demographic diversity while preserving the economic and cultural homogeneity with which members are comfortable, and which they consider an important appeal of the private club. I focus on club members' explanations around three topics: their clubs' exclusivity, their racial-ethnic composition, and the status of women members. Subjects minimize the significance of the exclusion they perform by rhetorically pointing to forces beyond their control, and by promoting the American Dream of colorblind, meritocratic equal opportunity. While they use the dominant racial ideology of colorblindness, subjects also show a departure from colorblindness in their active development of and rhetorical emphasis on racial-ethnic diversity in their ranks. Concerning women's status, club members mostly accept the subordination of women in clubs. To justify it, they rhetorically rely on both the dominant gender ideology and the inequalities in men's and women's wealth and domestic responsibilities which originate elsewhere. Club members are called to account for their exclusivity by the American value of egalitarian equal access. But at the same time, other cultural values provide them with the tools needed to successfully explain themselves, even as their talk and actions contribute to the reproduction of class, race, and gender inequalities. This research describes the perspective of wealthy white people, and critiques it as inadequate to a full understanding of the consequences of their actions. It shows how country club members talk and act in ways that help preserve their privileges, and the reasons why they do so.