I recently travelled to New York City to tour the archives of a small theatre company called "La Mama." La Mama is a theatre company with a rich history of global collaboration and avant garde works. As a theatre historian I believe that analyzing the past allows us to take bigger steps further in our industry. How can we move forward when we don’t know what is behind us?

The American theatre has always held the stereotype of being “gay.” What does that mean? I assume when one calls attention to this stereotype, they are referring to the fact that the theatre was one of the only places a spectator could see any sort of queer narrative.

However, this was not always the case. The mainstream, commercial, American theatre was notoriously heterosexual and white until the 1970s. However, there was a famous underground movement primarily started by queer people and people of color in the 1960s. This movement later became known as “The Off-Off Broadway Movement.” A collection of small theatre companies opened their doors with the mission of experimentation, representation, and global collaboration.

This presentation is an introduction to the major players of this movement, including Joe Cino, Ellen Stewart, and Sam Shepard. It is also an argument that this movement is the most influential theatre movement of the mid 20^th century, and we still feel the effects of these companies’ efforts today.

This research represents findings from an ongoing project analyzing the contemporary value of Figurative Realist Painting, i.e. the artistic depiction of the true-to-life human body. Despite its historical significance, I believe the art world lacks contemporary interest in Figurative Realist Painting due to three major phenomena. 1. The invention of photography in 1840 decreased the value of Realism in painting. 2. Abstract painting thus dominated American Art in the 20th century. 3. Contemporary art philosophies allow such wide definitions of Fine Art that traditional methods garner less critical interest.

On this basis, I suspected the continuing presence of Figurative Realist Painting to be fostered by enduring educational practices like figure drawing resulting in an intellectual appreciation for technical Realism. I conducted two interviews with contemporary Figurative Realist painters and sourced material on six others from reputable news publications. My findings are based on a qualitative analysis on the eight artists’ own words.

Each artist did reference a love for the technicality of Realism, which lead me to the revelation that Figurative Realism holds with the traditional philosophies of skilled labor and functionality particular to the Craft Arts. Designating Figurative Realist Painting as Craft values the technical skill requisite to Realism, reinvigorates a sense of functionality in the tradition, and contributes a fresh perspective to the nuanced relationship between Craft Arts and Fine Arts.

The interviews also shared another commonality: specific references to relatives, mentors, partners, and friends. Many also discussed artistic communities in their educational and adult lives. This characterizes Figurative Realism as an act of love for humanity, positioning the practice in terms of communal documentary and memorial. The continuing work of this project will further interrogate notions of Figurative Realism as Craft Art and communalist art.

Language endangerment is universally seen as a pressing and important issue by both Indigenous communities and academia: Indigenous groups are trying to develop educational programs that would help revive their languages, and linguists and anthropologists became allies in these efforts. With the interest from academia, the widespread interest arose. In the last decade, legacy and social media became an important tool for language advocacy, which changed the tone of the rhetoric used to discuss the issues surrounding Indigenous languages’ endangerment.

The new rhetoric surrounding language revitalization requires thorough analysis because it has the power to influence not only public perception, but also the decisions made by Indigenous communities regarding their languages. Contemporary media appears to be putting emphasis on the catastrophic consequences to inaction. The purpose of this study is to determine how and to what extent contemporary rhetoric around language revitalization influences the opinions, attitudes, and decision-making processes within Indigenous communities. Examining contemporary academic and non-academic media sources that address issues relating to language revitalization (such as journal articles and social media posts), I investigate the recurring themes that emerge. The patterns discussed include enumeration (Hill, 2002), sensationalizing, and catastrophizing.

This study is inspired by Hill (2002), Davis (2017), Greymorning (2018, 2022), among others. My approach builds on previous work by exploring additional sources not examined in previous studies (for example, online discourse), at least in written form. Indigenous perspective regarding this issue will be included through the interviews cited in Greymorning’s works as well as personal communication with Indigenous language educators, providing necessary insight into the perception of contemporary language revitalization rhetoric.

The research is significant in that it provides an update on the discussion of the ethics of discussing language endangerment issue, bringing new information regarding social media (including legacy media online) and its language of care.

African American English (Or AAE, a variant of Standard American English(SAE)) has several features that allow for a diverse array of temporal information to be encoded not found in SAE. Here I touch on two such methods, both regarding past events: Been and Done. Both been and done are employed by speakers to provide additional context and I posit that they appear in various constructions providing specific pragmatic information. My analysis has been grounded in previous investigations and supported by data collected colloquially.

Been is the word commonly used to indicate distant past events. When used in a verb phrase it implies that the action took place long before the utterance. The information being reported is generally interpreted as well established to the speaker such as in We been knew she was married (in SAE ‘we have known for a long time that she was married’).

Done indicates events that recently transpired and has been described by some as a ‘present perfect’ construction (Scott 2016). I argue that the constructions need not imply completion and can simply convey recentness as in He done left (in SAE ‘he just/recently left’).

While similar phenomena have been attested in AAE both been and done still represent areas of debate in the literature about their categorization (Scott 2016, Edwards 2001, Terry 2004). The structural makeup of AAE has long been ignored by many outside of linguistics (despite continuous research on the subject), and one of the goals of this investigation is to apply linguistic theories to the phenomena attested in AAE to better describe the systematicity of the dialect(s) as a whole. Through descriptive analysis of the systematic structure of AAE the field of linguistics can make important contributions to the acceptance of language diversity in all disciplines, and the information gleaned by examining these structures will enrich the field as a whole.

In comparison to private sector workers, workers in the public sector in Ghana are far more likely to supplement their incomes by taking on additional jobs, which is also known as moonlighting. Previous research on the moonlighting phenomenon in Ghana has focused on general motives for taking on a second job, but the workers’ decision to moonlight may differ across sectors. With an increasing wage gap between private and public sector wages in Ghana, the differentials in these sectors could have a significant impact on the individual’s decision to moonlight.

This paper examines the incidence and motivations for moonlighting with a focus on the public and private sectors in Ghana. The paper analyzes the factors that determine wages offered in each sector and examines the impact of the wage gap on workers’ decisions to moonlight. The study uses data from the most recent Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLLS7) to implement three regression techniques: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression techniques to identify wage-determining factors in the private and public sector, Oaxaca Blinder decomposition to measure wage differentials in the sectors, and the Probit regression estimation to analyze moonlighting factors in each sector.

The results of this study show that several factors play an important role in determining wage differentials in each sector. These include personal characteristics (gender, location of the individual, and educational attainment level of the individual), and labor market characteristics (job experience). The higher incidence of moonlighting in the public sector is linked to lower wages in the public sector. This study will aid policymakers who seek to understand the factors and implications of the wage gap between the public and private sectors and will help them to choose policies that will reduce wage disparity.

In 2022, Europe and the United States faced fundamental changes in international economic and diplomatic relations due to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Yet, the NATO-Russia split has excluded the International Space Station (ISS), where the U.S., Japanese, Canadian, and European space agencies continue cooperation with Russia. To understand how adversaries maintain peaceful relations in some institutions, I utilized two political science theories – structural realism and neoliberal institutionalism – to analyze factors influencing cooperation. Findings on the ISS’s political dynamics offer strategies to pressure space-faring nations into peaceful relations, allowing for other nations and NGOs to access space resources for all of humanity’s benefit.

My project consists of historical and current policy analysis of U.S. ambitions for a space station. I reviewed government documents, peer-reviewed journals and periodicals for information on the ISS. I identified three periods to test: initial agreements made without Russia (1988), revised agreements with Russia (1993), and 2022 NATO-Russia split. I applied key concepts from the above-mentioned theories to explain why the U.S. did or did not cooperate with Russia. For structural realism, I hypothesized that the U.S. would cooperate with Russia if it views the ISS as a material capability and has no relative gains issues. For neoliberal institutionalism, I hypothesized that the U.S. would cooperate, if the ISS is an institution and cooperation is necessary for its function.

Political science research on outer-space is limited despite its growing civil and military importance. Although scholarship exists that applies realist theories, I could not find research that utilizes neoliberal institutionalism to explain governmental actions relating to the ISS. Thus, my project offers a novel suggestion that the ISS is an institution that has taken on a life of its own, necessitating cooperation between space-faring adversaries regardless of terrestrial politics. The ISS is model for peaceful common ground.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with 37,300 new cases of cancer every year in the United States, despite effective vaccines for HPV being approved and available starting in 2006. This study examines missed opportunities for HPV vaccination among US teens, where the teen has a healthcare visit but the recommended HPV dose is not administered, and evaluates the differences in the rates of these missed opportunities between private and public healthcare facilities. This study uses a health economics framework and logistic regression to analyze data from a nationally representative sample of US teens using the public use files from the National Immunization Survey – Teen (NIS-Teen) from 2018, 2019, and 2020. The dataset includes information on vaccination history, healthcare facility types, and patient and household demographics. By using this nationally representative dataset, this study provides a broad picture of the issue of missed opportunities to vaccinate against HPV among US teens with a narrow analysis on the effect of facility type. Results suggest that missed opportunities for HPV vaccination are more prevalent in public facilities compared to private facilities and that certain demographic groups, such as white males, are at a higher risk for missing out on HPV vaccination opportunities. The results of the study provide new insights into the factors associated with missed vaccination opportunities, including healthcare facility type and patient demographics. The findings have important implications for policymakers and healthcare providers in the fight to prevent HPV-related cancers, highlighting the need for targeted interventions for HPV vaccine uptake among US teens and to reduce disparities in HPV vaccination coverage.

Nationally and in Montana, children living in rural areas have unique barriers to vaccine access and lower vaccination rates compared to children in urban areas. However, there has been minimal prior research on rural-focused strategies for increasing vaccination rates. Our objective was to compare rural and urban Montana primary care providers’ (PCPs’) practices in promoting childhood vaccination and their perceptions regarding barriers to and strategies for promoting vaccination.

We conducted a mail and online survey of rural and urban Montana PCPs. In October-December 2021, the survey was pilot tested by PCPs across Montana. In January-April 2022, we sent out four survey mailings to all eligible PCPs, 4-6 weeks apart. The last mailing contained a hand-addressed, larger, and different-colored envelope than was previously used. The survey included modules on routine vaccinations in children 0-2 years old and COVID-19 vaccination in children 5-17 years old. We completed descriptive analyses and used chi-square statistical tests to compare responses from rural and urban PCPs.

The participation rate was 36% (n=298). Urban PCPs (90-94%, depending on vaccine) stocked routinely recommended vaccines more frequently than rural PCPs (71-84%), but stocked the COVID-19 vaccine less often (urban: 44%, rural: 71%, pp=0.01) and concerns that vaccination will weaken their child’s immune system (29% vs. 6%, pp=0.01).

This study’s results illuminated potential interventions to increase rural vaccination rates, such as increasing the number of providers stocking all recommended vaccines, identifying strategies to address parents’ concerns, and collaborating with health departments on public vaccine communication campaigns.

Approximately 35,000 HPV-attributable cancers are diagnosed in the United States annually. Rural communities face a higher burden of HPV-attributed infections and cancers compared to urban areas due to lower vaccination coverage. The CDC recommends a 2-dose or a 3-dose HPV vaccine series depending on the age of the initial vaccination. Only 53% of eligible adolescents in Montana had completed the HPV vaccine series. While research on vaccine delivery systems has focused mainly on private clinics, rural adolescents rely on public health facilities for their immunization needs. A thorough understanding of public health nurses’ role in improving community vaccination rates will facilitate the deployment of effective evidence-based strategies to improve HPV vaccine uptake.

We used a positive deviance approach to select the study participants. Using data from Montana’s centralized immunization information system, we identified rural public health departments with the highest and the lowest HPV vaccination rates and invited immunization nurses from these facilities to participate in a 45-minute interview. The questions in the interview guide were developed based on the literature review, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), and the study objectives. CFIR categorizes five organizational and participant-related domains that influence the successful implementation of an intervention; the study intervention being the recommendation and administration of the HPV vaccine. We used a content analysis approach to identify themes and sub-themes within the CFIR domains to report our findings.

Interviews with 21 nurses reveal that a lack of robust reminder/recall systems, beliefs about autonomy and ownership, quality improvement initiatives, and vaccine recommendation styles influence community HPV vaccination rates. Participants highlighted the need to engage adolescents through tailored vaccine messaging, create training opportunities for nurses in vaccine conversations, invest in social media campaigns to raise awareness, encourage collaborations with schools and community organizations, and promote HPV vaccination at every patient encounter.