During the 1920s, an immigrant missionary from colonial India named Muhammad Sadiq established headquarters in Chicago and Detroit for a branch of Islam called the Ahmadiyya movement. During the interwar period, the Ahmadiyya movement became the first institutional expression of Islam in North America. It was especially influential in attracting African American converts through anti-racist messages and its connection to Black Nationalist, Pan-Islamist, and Pan-Africanist groups and ideologies. This project argues that the Ahmadiyya movement developed a “conversion rhetoric” aimed at African Americans that emphasized Islam as a connection to ancestral practice and a means toward liberation. Later African American Muslim groups followed a similar pattern in their conversion efforts, leading to the growth of Islam among African Americans through the twentieth century, known as African American Islamic Revival. Both the Ahmadiyya movement and American Islam more broadly have received little focus from historians. This project aims to expand the historical understanding of African American Islamic Revival by exploring publications circulated by the Ahmadiyya and later Muslim organizations between 1920 and 1960. The ideas introduced by the Ahmadiyya movement can allow historians to form a cohesive framework for understanding the origins of the African American Islamic Revival movement and position the Midwest as central to the growth of African American Islam.

The Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge opened when the state was still a territory in 1870. While it was open it housed not only men but a number of women. The first female inmate arrived in Deer Lodge in 1867 and the prison quickly realized it had no adequate housing for female prisoners. In the eyes of the general public women were not meant to be criminals and the territory had not prepared for them. Both violent and non-violent female offenders were housed in the prison during this time. The prison records of 189 women have been recently digitized on the Montana History Portal allowing scholars the opportunity to study these inmates. The records range from 1909-1960, though the prison remained open until 1979. Through an analysis of these records alongside additional archival materials, including census data, marriage and divorce records, and newspaper reports, this work argues that violent female offenders were wielded within media as examples of immoral women and held to an imagined standard of female purity. Additionally, women of color were further targeted for their crimes and given no remorse by media correspondence who allowed white women forgiveness while simultaneously condemning the actions and lives of others. Through a demographic analysis of these records and a direct look at female offenders this work shows that women of color were being arrested and detained at a higher rate than white women. By identifying how the media depicted women and their crimes, I discuss the media’s inherent biases passed by its authors onto its readers, creating a shared narrative about these women, their lives, and their crimes. These views have persisted into the twenty-first century and continue to affect marginalized women.

Research points to the value of the arts in promoting wellness across the lifespan, while Social Prescribing initiatives—which allow health professionals to refer people to community resources— have been shown to improve patient functioning through increased access to social support (Magsamen, 2019; Chatterjee et al., 2018). Recognizing the essential role that social determinants play in lasting health, this project will focus on the development and implementation of Social Prescribing around the world, with a particular focus on connecting primary care patients with therapeutic museum experiences and other arts-based resources in their communities that increase feelings of belonging. The Indivisible Self—an evidence-based model of wellness—and Adlerian Individual Psychology both recognize that access to essentials and engagement in social activity are key factors that contribute to overall well-being, and Social Prescribing frameworks aim to address these areas that clinical drug prescriptions alone cannot fix (Gorenberg et al., 2023). Research will be conducted via the Learning Center at St. Patrick Hospital, in addition to an in-depth interview method with healthcare, arts, and museum professionals who have implemented Social Prescribing initiatives at their institutions. This research process will also examine ways that Missoula County can utilize Social Prescribing in tandem with therapeutic arts programming to ultimately make the arts more accessible and connective for patients in need.

The development of counseling as a profession is notable, evolving as helpers responded to human needs in a variety of specialty areas and ultimately coalescing and conceptualized as a full, unique professional identity. While large national counseling associations support the counseling profession as a whole, there is scant research on the unique needs of counselors in a large, rural state like Montana. Counselors must keep abreast of current research on diagnosis and treatment, innovative clinical interventions and on legislative issues that impact their credentialing, reimbursement, and increasingly seek to determine who can and cannot receive counseling services.

This is an exploratory study seeking to understand the specific professional needs of Montana counselors, how national professional associations are meeting those needs, and how a state counseling association could fill any gaps. Participants will be Montana Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors (LCPCs). They will complete an online survey of forced-choice, Likert-scale, and open-ended questions. Results will be analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and by exploring general themes for qualitative data.

There are currently no studies in the literature which examine the specific relationship between the professional support needs of licensed counselors in a large, rural Western state and how those needs are met. Only one study was found which explored whether there are any gaps in supports for counselors belonging to national professional organizations, which could be filled by a state professional counseling organization. That study was completed in a small New England state which only had 358 licensed mental health counselors, with only 55 participants. Montana is a large, rural state with over 2500 LCPCs spread across over 140,000 square miles. Finding ways to meet the professional support needs of Montana counselors, can better equip them to be the best advocates and clinical counselors for their clients throughout Montana.

In the United States alone, food waste generates 123 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide, uses 13.4 billion cubic meters of water, and takes up 25.9 million cubic meters of landfill space every year. Given the large impacts of food waste, organizations must take a more active role to encourage a reduction in the amount of wasted food. Although suppliers contribute to the majority of food waste, there are fewer studies available that can show how suppliers may reduce their waste. Nevertheless, consumers still make a very large contribution to food waste (40 percent). For this reason, the reduction of consumer food waste can still have a large impact on the total amount of food wasted. Systemic changes can help consumers to waste less food. This study uses primary and secondary literature to find strategies that Missoula based conservation or food focused organizations could employ to reduce the amount of food that Missoulians waste.

To understand the larger context of consumer food waste in Montana, this study surveys how consumer food waste in Montana compares to the rest of the United States. In the process of finding strategies, this presentation clarifies the difference between food waste prevention and food waste management. This study only explores strategies for food waste prevention.

Research seems to indicate that educational campaigns, the development of mobile applications, and the installation of self-refill stations for groceries are all strategies that organizations can employ that may cause consumers to reduce their food waste. However, certain educational campaigns and mobile applications designs are more effective at reducing wasted food than others. The author of this study hopes that research on more effective ways to reduce consumer food waste will help to provide systemic solutions for how to reduce waste.