Multiculturalism in Crisis: 60 Years of Housing Illness in a Pa Mushroom Town

Advancing recent literature that critically examines multicultural efforts to generate socio-economic inclusion, this article studies how, in a small yet affluent Pennsylvania town, multicultural festivals are part of a social milieu in which Latinx people face continuing erasure and exploitation—manifested in precarious health and housing conditions. Using ethnographic and qualitative methods (including 60 interviews—24 with non-Latinx white and Latinx NGO staff members and 36 with Latinx agricultural workers), I show that, although multicultural festivals in the town aim to give a voice and recognize minority communities, they have been part of a social milieu in which Latinx peoples have been actively silenced and overlooked over the last half-century, resulting in heightened rates of key health issues related to substandard and dangerous housing (including diabetes, obesity, and coronavirus). From a semiotic theoretical approach, the disconnect between increasing performative-visibility and ongoing marginalization of Latinx individuals can be explained by multicultural festivals relying upon floating signifiers. My findings shed light on the nuanced cultural ways that the structural social and material suffering of minoritized populations is overlooked through the invocation of purportedly emancipatory acts of dubious efficacy. I finish by elaborating broader relevances and making a case for possible hope.

Continue reading John Mirsky »

Graphs, Adjacency Matrices and Stable Polynomials

Our research concerns the interplay of undirected graphs and stable polynomials. Stable polynomials, which are polynomials with restricted zero sets, are used in a variety of mathematical fields. Here, a stable polynomial p is defined as a two-variable polynomial that satisfies p(z_1,z_2) ≠ 0 for any (z_1,z_2) in the unit disk. In this research, we use adjacency matrices of undirected graphs to construct stable polynomials and investigate the relationships between the shapes of the graphs and the zeros of the polynomials. In a variety of situations, we establish the existence and location of polynomial zeros on the boundary of the unit disk and characterize how the zero set of a stable polynomial could approach those boundary zeros. We also pose and examine conjectures about more generalized and complicated cases. Using our results, one can build polynomials with specific boundary zeros and identify the boundary zeros implied by given polynomial properties.

Continue reading Yang Hong »

Analyzing the Impact of Live Staking on Channel and Floodplain Morphology and Soil Carbon Sequestration in a First-Order Stream, Central Pennsylvania

Live staking is a stream restoration technique where live cuttings of riparian trees and woody shrubs are planted into stream banks and floodplains to revegetate degraded areas, decrease erosion and runoff, and provide bank stability. Here we present results from year two of a multi-year study investigating the effects of live staking a post-agricultural, unnamed tributary of Pine Creek located in Woodward, PA. Over 2000 live stakes were planted along the streambanks and floodplain in 2018-2019. In summer 2021, we extracted soil cores along transects perpendicular to the tributary, and we collected high resolution topography along each transect using a Trimble RTK-GPS. We also measured the carbon content of each soil core on a CHN analyzer.
Soil sampling showed that the floodplain mainly consist of silt loam with charcoal, roots, and rusty-colored mottling. There are no major spatial trends in soil characteristics throughout the study site. The mean soil carbon percentage is 1.77% , which is low compared to other published studies of floodplain soil carbon in temperate regions. Channel analysis shows a relatively degraded stream, with low sinuosity and a silt-covered bed that is considerably incised relative to the floodplain elevation.
Compared to baseline data collected in 2020, the average soil carbon increased by 0.1% and channel dimensions have not changed. Overall, these results show that impacts from live staking on channel dimensions and soil properties are not seen after one year, although we hypothesize that soil carbon will increase in the future, given the low baseline values.

Continue reading Allison Bergeron »

Social Eavesdropping in Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa)

Social eavesdropping is when individuals gather information about others by observing social interactions. Insects such as paper wasps learn about the relative dominance status of two other wasps by observing fights. Madagascar hissing cockroaches (MHCs) similarly live in social groups with dominance hierarchies among males and may therefore share this cognitive ability. In the present study, we tested for social eavesdropping in MHCs. Two 120-minutes observation periods were performed to determine how long aggressive interactions between males last. The results showed that the males’ agonistic behaviors lasted an average of 90 minutes, followed by a lack of activity. These findings will lay the groundwork for future studies in which 90-minute trials will be used to observe male agonistic interactions. The next step of this study is to determine whether MHCs are capable of using social eavesdropping to modify their behavior. Before training, 16 males will be randomly assigned as either fighters or observers. During training, two subjects will observe a 90-minute interaction between other males. The observers will then be paired with a fighter they observed and one they did not, and the agonistic behaviors of each will be recorded.

Continue reading Miranda Shearer »

Supporting Teacher Retention Through a Trauma-Informed Lens

This poster explores the relationship between trauma-informed practices and teacher burnout and retention. Trauma-informed practices recognize the traumas that students may bring into the classroom and their influence on students’ behavior, social and emotional health, and ability to learn. By utilizing trauma-informed practices, teachers can help children who have experienced trauma build resiliency and overcome their experiences. While teachers play an important role in the support system of these students, they are also at risk for experiencing secondary trauma and burnout. For the past decade, schools across the United States have seen high levels of burnout and turnover amongst their educators. This poster discusses two studies of trauma-informed practices in education: (1) A systematic review finding that few states require pre-service teachers to be trained in trauma-informed practices and, (2) a mixed-methods study of the effect of a grant program in Pennsylvania funding trauma-informed practices on teacher burnout and turnover. The results indicate that teachers in Pennsylvania are experiencing burnout, particularly emotional exhaustion, but that there were no differences in burnout levels or intended turnover between teachers who taught in schools with the grant for trauma-informed practices and those that did not. Implications for further policy are discussed, including suggestions for implementing tiered whole-school models of trauma-informed practices to support both students who have experienced trauma and the teachers that work with them.

Continue reading Nicole Reddig »