Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We explain support for the EU as an indicator for pan-national identity. Classifying identity parties on three dimensions, we find supporters of nationalist parties oppose the EU and supporters of sub-cultural defense parties support EU as counterweiight to the nation state from which they seek independence. However,exclusivists (who oppose outsiders joining their community) oppose the EU regardless of other identities

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this paper I argue that the dichotomous framing of identity vs. class politics in American labor politics is inadequate, particularly in a context where issues of class, race, and gender are often embedded simultaneously in systems of complex inequality . Through examining a case study of union change, my research shows that the assumed divisions around class and identity can be transformed into a basis for the mobilization of previously excluded groups within unions, and that political organizations under certain conditions do change to incorporate multiple identities and groups.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this study a new grandparent identity measure is constructed that allows us to compare grandparent identity meanings with the meanings of other adult identities. I also investigate the relationships between identities and well-being. Data were collected in 1997 from 203 middle-aged grandmothers and grandfathers living in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina metropolitan area. Grandparent and parent identity meanings are measured a set of ten adjective pairs. Intergenerational family identity combined grandparent and parent identity meanings. Self-esteem and depressive symptoms serve as two indicators of well-being. I find that there are no differences between grandparent and parent identity meanings but that men and women had higher grandparent identity meanings than religious, friend, or spouse identity meanings. Further, grandparent identity is significantly related to higher self-esteem and lower levels of depressive symptoms when it is the only identity in the model but not when parent identity is included in another model. Finally, intergenerational family identity is positively related to self-esteem and negatively related to depressive symptoms. The findings confirm the expectation that grandparent identity meanings may encourage well-being. Further, the intergenerational identity reflects the overlapping meanings and experiences of being a parent and a grandparent.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Puerto Rican identity in the United States has long been influenced by pressure to Americanize and by pressure to maintain a common Puerto Rican nationalist identity (Davila 1997). Puerto Ricans in response have created a culture that is strongly influenced by Americanization policies, but still uniquely Puerto Rican (Davila 1997; Morris 1995). The Puerto Rican government has deliberately endeavored to direct the philosophy of Puerto Rican identity on the island and abroad (Davila 1997; Duany 2002a). This struggle for the maintenance of Puerto Rican culture against the affront of the Americanization influences has created a rift between Puerto Ricans who wish to maintain their Puerto Ricaness on the island versus the perceived threat of Nuyorican influences from the Diasporas. The Diaspora community in turn has fought for the maintenance of their own Puerto Rican culture in the face of a hostile environment in the metropolis (Flores 2000; Padilla 1986).In keeping with the question of adaptability for Puerto Ricans in the United States, my study will analyze the significance of the traditional assimilation paradigm as well as the segmented assimilation model on Puerto Ricans in the United States. Furthermore, using the 1989 Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) I will use structural level variables, such as the proportional size of each specific group in my study to Puerto Rican women in order to challenge the traditional assimilation and the segmented assimilation paradigms to the adaptability perspective. Initial findings have indicated that identity is strongly maintained even when Puerto Ricans out-group marry. However, the strength of their identity vary by the ethnic group they marry into.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the 1950’s, butch and femme lesbians were “the” lesbian gender presentations of the day. Several scholars have written extensively about lesbian identity of the 1950’s including Lillian Faderman, Joan Nestle, Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis. The idea and presentation of lesbian gender has seen major transformations throughout the past 50 years. In this paper I suggest that such alterations were highly sensitive to the political climate of the day. For example, the traditional butch-femme lesbian identity and gender presentation saw a dramatic change during the second wave of the feminist movement. A change which has left lasting ripples within the community. This paper provides a historical examination of lesbian identity and gender presentation as they have adapted to and railed against, not only our feminist political climate, but the more over-arching climate of the Western social movements through the last five decades.