College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Remembering Labor Conflict as an American Battlefield
    (George Wright Sociey, 2023-09-15) Paul A. Shackel; Author
    Anthracite coal extraction developed in northeastern Pennsylvania during the late 18th century, and through the early 20th century the industry was supported by new waves of immigration. New immigrant workers faced various forms of structural racism, often being underpaid, assigned the toughest jobs, and provided substandard housing. In 1897, as 400 men marched on a public road with the goal of closing a company mine, a sheriff and his posse fired upon them, killing 19. An additional six men died a few days later of gunshot wounds. While the incident, known as the Lattimer Massacre, was noted as one of the most tragic labor strikes in US history, the event faded from national public memory within a few decades. A type of historical amnesia settled in until 75 years later when the community and labor organizations erected a memorial near the site. Although annual commemorations are now held at the site, the Lattimer Massacre remains absent from textbooks and it is still not part of national public memory. Over the past two decades, as the Hispanic population has increased significantly in northeastern Pennsylvania, so, too, have anti-immigrant attitudes increased in the US. Now more than ever we need to remember the history of racism and xenophobia directed at immigrant laborers
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    ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SITE 36LU323, Lower Street Double, Pardeesville, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
    (University of Maryland, 2023) Jones, Sean; Westmont, V. Camille; Shackel, Paul
    The University of Maryland Anthracite Heritage Program's summer archaeological field methods course (ANTH496) was taught at Pardeesville, Hazle Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (previously Lattimer Village No.2) from May through July 2014. The field school identified and excavated two previously undocumented archaeology sites dating between the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, removing material culture related to the lives of immigrant coal miners and their families. Sites 36LU323 (Lower Street Double) and 36LU321 (Yanac House) were investigated. The following report outlines the Phase I and II archaeological investigations of site 36LU323. All archaeological investigations, review, curation, and reporting were completed in accordance with The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Pennsylvania, as amended. The goal of this investigation was to (1) mitigate the loss of material culture due to the hazardous slumping of a privy feature, (2) assess the integrity of archaeological deposits at the site, and (3) gather material cultural evidence to aid in the research themes related to the lives of immigrant labors in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Lower Street Double House site consisted of the original coal company-constructed doubletenancy house. The Pardee Brothers and Company constructed the house in Lattimer Village No.2. The household was rented until the coal company's bankruptcy in the 1930s when the occupants, the Yannuzzi family purchased the tenant house. The field school investigated site 36LU323 using Phase II archaeological methodology. Three Test Units of varying sizes (5 ft. x 10 ft. and 3 ft. x 3 ft.) labeled as Test Units 7, 11, and 12 were excavated. Test unit 7 was the most prominent of those excavated and contained Feature 11, an early 20th-century privy. Approximately 1,483 artifacts were recovered from the Lower Street Double site. Most of the material culture recovered from this investigation was from a 5 ft. x 10 ft. early 20th-century privy. All diagnostic artifacts found within the site come from this feature. Despite the small sample size of the Lower Street Double site, the significance of the material culture record lends a further view into the lives of exploited labor and the structural violence found within the anthracite coal industry. Moreover, the Lower Street Double site provides a contemporaneous privy to the Yanac House site (36LU321), providing research potential for analyzing ethnic diversity within Lattimer No. 2. Analysis of the Lower Street Double artifact assemblage is guided by research themes to provide a coherent framework for understanding the occupation and lifestyle of household residents. The research themes include (1) An analysis of consumer access to commodities in Lattimer No. 2, (2) how household identity is present in choices of material culture, and (3) how structural violence committed against the labor force may have led to serious health defects.
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    ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SITE 36LU312, CANAL STREET, LATTIMER LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
    (2022-08) Jones, Sean; Shackel, Paul
    The University of Maryland Anthracite Heritage Program summer archaeological field methods course (ANTH496) was taught in Lattimer, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (previously Lattimer Village No.1). From May 29th to July 6th of 2012, the previously undocumented Canal Street site (36LU312) was investigated. The following report outlines the Phase I and II archaeological investigations at the Canal Street Site. All archaeological review, curation, and writing were completed in accordance with The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commissions Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Pennsylvania as amended. Site 36LU312 consisted of coal company-constructed houses. From as early as 1878, up to nine structures of varying sizes and shapes lined the Canal Street road, and over the course of the following seven decades, the structures in this area changed size and shape as additional outbuildings, we added and subtracted to meet the needs of their occupants. The Canal Street section of Lattimer No.1 consisted of an ethnic enclave of primary Slavic and Italian immigrants; this ethnic diversity in the northeast area of town provides a unique perspective in an otherwise ethnically segregated company town. The objective of this work was to assess the integrity of archaeological deposits at the sites to aid in research themes related to the lives of 19th- and 20th-century immigrants and an examination of ethnic enclaves in patch-towns. These research themes include land usage, access to commodities, household demographics, and structural violence. The field school investigations included historical research and excavation of shovel test pits and test units of varying sizes. In total, 32 shovel test pits (STPs) and 13 test units were excavated. The site yielded 9,992 artifacts, 6% of which were ceramics, 35% of which were glass, and 49% of which were metal. A minimum of 76 ceramic and glass vessels were identified. Analysis of the Canal Street artifact assemblage is guided by research themes to provide a coherent framework of understanding the occupation and lifestyle of household residents. The research themes include: (1) a spatial analysis of land usage, (2) an analysis of residents' access to commodities and the effects of such access, (3) an analysis of household and neighborhood demographics, (4) and a discussion about structural violence. The large portion of the material culture recovered from these investigations consisted of modern materials or non-diagnostic materials. The diagnostic materials recovered from the Canal Street assemblage provide a framework that can be used as a model in the analysis of ethnical diverse company towns.
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    Sex Cam Modeling: Labor, Intimacy, and Prosumer Porn
    (2021) Patella-Rey, PJ; Ritzer, George; Korzeniewicz, Patricio; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This dissertation begins with the assumption that the porn industry has radically changed in ways we are yet to fully understand. Drawing on interviews and auto-ethnography, it attempts to offer three distinct theoretical lenses through which these changes can be observed. First, I examine what is bought and sold in cam rooms, concluding that the work of cam modeling (both on camera and behind the scenes) has many dimensions that are not captured by reductionist tropes about selling one’s body. Second, I argue that camming fits a broader pattern in online content, where clear divisions between producer and consumer begin to break down. I conclude that camming (and especially custom content/shows) can best understood as prosumer pornography (i.e., as a co-creation of model and viewer). Finally, I explore the ways in which sex cam models actively develop intimacy with clients in spite of the fact that the interactions are defined by social and spatial distance; technological mediation; asymmetry; gendered expectations; and commercial transaction.
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    Location Choice, Product Choice, and the Human Resource Practices of Firms
    (2007-05-10) Freedman, Matthew L.; Haltiwanger, John C; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This thesis is comprised of three chapters. The first investigates the implications of industrial clustering for labor mobility and earnings dynamics. Motivated by a theoretical model in which geographically clustered firms compete for workers, I exploit establishment-level variation in agglomeration to explore the impact of clustering in the software publishing industry on labor market outcomes. The results show that clustering makes it easier for workers to job hop among establishments within the sector. Further, workers in clusters have relatively steep earnings-tenure profiles, accepting lower wages early in their careers in exchange for stronger earnings growth and higher wages later. These findings underscore the importance of geography in understanding labor market dynamics within industries. While the first chapter reveals striking relationships between the human resource practices and location decisions of high-technology establishments, the second chapter (joint with F. Andersson, J. Haltiwanger, J. Lane, and K. Shaw) draws key connections between the hiring and compensation policies of innovative firms and the nature of their product markets. We show that software firms that operate in product markets with highly skewed returns to innovation pay a premium to attract talented workers. Yet these same firms also reward loyalty; that is, highly skilled workers faithful to their employers enjoy higher earnings in firms with a greater variance in potential payoffs from innovation. These results not only contribute to our knowledge of firm human resource practices and product market strategies, but also shed light on patterns of income inequality within and between industries. Building on this final idea, the last chapter (joint with F. Andersson, E. Davis, J. Lane, B. McCall, and L. Sandusky) examines the contribution of worker and firm reallocation to within-industry changes in earnings inequality. We find that the entry and exit of firms and the sorting of workers and firms based on worker skills are key determinants of changes in industry earnings distributions over time. However, the importance of these and other factors in driving observed dynamics in earnings inequality varies across sectors, with aggregate shifts often disguising fundamental differences in the underlying forces effecting change.
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    Women's Paid Labor Force Participation and Child Immunization: A Multilevel Model
    (2006-05-07) Strayhorn, Kali-Ahset Amen; DeRose, Laurie F.; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I estimated the effect of women's cash work on child immunization in 25 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America using a multi-level fixed-effects model and found support for the hypothesis that all children benefit in areas with higher rates of women's labor force participation. The proportion of women working within a sub-national region (province) has a strong, positive impact on the likelihood of complete child immunization. While all children benefit from increasing levels of women's work, the children of those who work benefit more from living in areas where women's work is at higher rates. Thus, this analysis supports the view that a child's complete immunization is influenced by the larger social context associated with women's work.