MA Project Report and Thesis Archive
Below you will find examples of graduate student work. This should help you gain an understanding of the range of projects and the format that should be used. Please remember that these projects are the actual work of our students and should only be used for format reference purposes.
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2024
DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Research: An Inventory of California's Urban
Place Management Organizations [pdf]
Project Report
Juan Carlos Aguirre
The Digital Experience in an Autonomous Vehicle [pdf]
Project Report
Nikolas Bonovich
Perspectives of Disasters and Risk While in Interim Housing [pdf]
Project Report
Gabrielle Fall
What We Learn from Nevis Potters: Keeping Visibility of Afro-Caribbean Community and
Culture Alive Against Evolving Neoliberalism [pdf]
Project Report
Jillian C. Ferini
Wine Country Migrant Farm Work in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic [pdf]
Project Report
Daniela Flores Paniagua
Murals As Resistance: Mapping Community Murals in the San Francisco Bay Area [pdf]
Project Report
Kiley Stokes
2023
Arts as Community Expression: Mapping a Mosaic of Muslim Artists in the San Francisco
Bay Area [pdf]
Project Report
Caroline Ammon Yildiz
Homelessness and Taphonomy: A Multidisciplicary Study [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Chloë Angst
Unpacking Spatial Narratives: Universal Museum Design [pdf]
Project Report
Andriana Bodrouk
Belonging as Placemaking: Volunteers Creating Community at the Peralta Hacienda Historical
Park “Food for Fruitvale” Pantry in Oakland, California [pdf]
Project Report
Anna Bryan Edmondson
Articulating Artifacts: Negotiating Object Biographies with Human Mediation at the
Japanese American Museum of San José [pdf]
Project Report
Cibella Gamma
Reclaiming Place: Mapping Erasure and Cultural Sites of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Using
ArcGIS StoryMap [pdf]
Project Report
Alexandra Garcia
Rent Relief: Stories from Succeeding Together 2009-2018 [pdf]
Project Report
Miguel Huerta
Making Future Care Visible: Applying Anthropology to Design a Future-Focused Care
Tool [pdf]
Project Report
Patrick Padiernos
Factors That Inspire Youth to Pursue STEM Pathways in San Jose, California [pdf]
Project Report [pdf]
Kayla Celest Combes Taduran
Makkin Mak Nommo (We Are Still Here): Assessing the Impact of a Lasting Resource that
Contributes to Indigenous Knowledge Building [pdf]
Project Report
Cesar Manuel Villanueva
Cultural Atlas Users: A User Experience Research Project for the Mosaic Atlas [pdf]
Project Report
Graham Wade
2022
Breaking the Habit: Assessing Change and Identity in Virtual Communities [pdf]
Project Report
Chioma Aso-Hernandez
"For Better or Worse": Imagining Innovation in Smart City Municipal Design [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Kevin Kochever
Serving Undocumented Students in a Time of Pandemic: Applying Anthropology for Improving
Mentoring and Learning in Virtual Spaces [pdf]
Project Report
Edher Zamudio
Wholesome Food in Porcelain Dishes a Zooarchaeological Investigation of the Loma Prieta
Lumber Company Camp [pdf]
Project Report
Lindsley Britton
2021
Neogtiating Transportation Insecurity: Local Responses and Coping Strategies in San
José, CA [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Andrew Ng
Entrepreneurialism as Precarity: American Bookkeepers and Technological Transformation [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Melanie Maxwell Bailey
Queerifying Hazards, Vulnerability, and Disasters in San José, California [pdf]
Project Report
Jhaid Parreno
IncluSikh: Inclusively Representing Sikhs and Sikhism in Northern California and the
Central Valley [pdf]
Project Report
Shilpa Shah
Maximizing The Value of Archaeological Collections to Multuple Stakeholders: Collections
Rehabilitation of the Deep Creek Site At The Veterans Curation Program [pdf]
Project Report
Leah Grant
2020
Project Prepared: Building Community through Disaster Preparedness in San José’s Japantown
and Hensley Historic District [pdf]
Project Report
Vanessa Castro
Freeways and Farms: Veggielution at Emma Prusch Farm Park and Taylor Street Urban
Farms Study [pdf]
Project Report
Ashley Estrada
Un Largo Destino con Distintas Experiencias: The Stories of Immigrants and Refugees
in the Bay Area [pdf]
Project Report
Kristen Constanza
Significance of Community Collaboration Relationships: Eritrean and Ethiopian Oromo
Perspectives on Caregiving Practices and Strategies, Community Health, And Chronic
Disease Prevention, Management and Treatment [pdf]
Project Report
Philmon Berhane
Providing Designers Insight into Visitor Experience and Values with Applied Anthropology [docx]
Project Report
Jasmine Low
Eat Well, Sleep Well, and Exercise: Latinx Self-Care Practices at San Jose State University [pdf]
Project Report
Edgar Daniel Maldonado
Reputation Relocated: Futures of Trust and Reputation in the Platform Gig Economy [pdf]
Project Report
Andrew Marley
Representations of Women and Minorities Groups in Comics [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Laticia Marshall
It's Not All Fun and Games; Sometimes It's Just Games: Creating Video Essays to Teach
Ethnographic Methods to Tabletop Game Designers [pdf]
Project Report
Jamieson Mockel
Organizational Culture and Collaboration at a Silicon Valley Startup [pdf]
Project Report
Andrea Vinke
Project Management for Student Sexual Health Organization: STI and HIV Knowledge,
Prevention, and Care [pdf]
Project Report
Brett Witteck
2019
Evaluating the Roles and Responsibilties of Stakeholders in a Campus-Community Collaboration [pdf]
Project Report
Briza Diaz
The Silicon Valley Approach to Poverty: Humanitarian Designers at Work in Financial
Inclusion [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Jeffrey Greger
Pedagogies of Play: An Ethnographic Analysis of Activity-Based Learning in Two Elementary
Classrooms [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Chelsea Halliwell
The Town of Loma Prieta: Applied Archaeology in The Forest in Nisene Marks State Park [pdf]
Project Report
Arianna Heathcote
Recognition Through Remembrance: A Consideration of Muwekma Ohlone Oral Histories
with Kuksu-Associated Material Culture to Infer Precolonial Connections to Place [pdf]
Project Report
Alicia Hedges
Mobility Through Droughts: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Femora in San Francisco Bay
Area Prehistoric Native Population [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Sarah Luce
Native American Urban Relocation Collaborative Oral History Collection: Establishing
a Community Repository and Developing Community-Driven Collection and Archival Practices [pdf]
Project Report
Veronica Saldivar
Plastics in "Paradise?" A Look at Plastic Consumption and Waste Management in San
Pedro, Belize [pdf]
Project Report
Megan Shaw
2018
Our Homes, Our Stories: Aging in Place for LGBTQ Communities in the San Francisco
Bay Area [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Simon Jarrar
The Conservation, Excavation, and Analysis of Ancient Human Remains: A Bioarchaeological
Case Study of Prehistoric Reburials from Nevis, West Indies [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Marissa Massaro
Home Front Households: Propaganda and Patriotism in the Domestic Sphere During WWII [pdf]
Project Report
Shauna Mundt
Deciphering Cultural Markers of Space: A Study of Understanding Urban Landscapes and
Human Behaviors for a Smoother Transition of Autonomous Vehicles in our Ecosystem [pdf]
Project Report
Bhargavi Pawar
Resisting Erasure: The History, Heritage, and Legacy of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of
the San Francisco Bay Area [pdf]
Project Report
Alisha Ragland
Landscape Mobility of the Precontact Ohlone: An Isotopic Investigation of Dietary
Reconstruction, Landscape Mobility, and Marriage Patterns [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Kelli Sullivan
2017
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Collaborative Forest Restoration in the Sierra
Nevada [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Michael Boero
Evaluation of Rural Native American Veterans’ Perceptions of the Veterans Affairs
Healthcare System [pdf]
Project Report
Julianne Cadden
Brandy City: Recording an Historic Gold Mining Town in Sierra County, California [pdf]
Project Report
Elizabeth Fernandez
Street Vendors, Super Bowl 50, and the Spatial Politics of Immigration Control in
Silicon Valley [pdf]
Project Report
Miguel Garcia
Creation of a Cooperative Protection Agreement between the United States Forest Service
and the Mono Lake Paiute Kutzadika Indian Community for Protection of Kutzadika Sacred
Sites on Federal Land [pdf]
Project Report
Robert Gelb
The Sediment Analysis of a Prehistoric Shell Midden from Nevis, West Indies [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Erika Harvey
Strategies for Serving Undocumented College Students in California: A Project in Applied
Anthropology [pdf]
Project Report
Gabriel Manrique
A Study in Hoomanism: Understanding Meaning in Geek Philanthropy and Cyberanthropology [pdf]
Project Report
Ailea Merriam-Pigg
Organizational Analysis at San José State Athletics: Building the SASS Peer Mentoring
Program [pdf]
Project Report
Timea Molnar
Informing Archaeological Site Management through Faunal Analysis: An Exercise in Applied
Zooarchaeology at CA-SCR-10 [pdf]
Project Report
Angela Moniz
Academic Barriers for Migrant Middle School Students in Salinas, California [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Alexa Terhorst
Equine Assisted Therapy on People with Multiple Sclerosis, A Case Study [pdf]
Project Report
Deborah N. Walde-Baughn
2016
The Anthropology Motivation: A Qualitative Study of Volunteers at Sacred Heart Community
Service [pdf]
Project Report
Danielle Anderson
A Hero’s Welcome: Helping Veterans at San Jose State University Make a Successful
Transition to Higher Education [pdf]
Project Report
Varsha Damle
Living between Borders: Transnational Marriage and US Resettlement Patterns in Sudanese
Refugee Populations [pdf]
Masters Thesis
Deirdre Patterson
2015
Family Perspectives on Sustainable Living: An Anthropological Study Imagining Different
Futures [pdf]
Project Report
Megan Aufdermaur
An Analysis of 3D Printer Users and Their Networks in the Silicon Valley [pdf]
Project Report
Armando Ayala
Learning Non-Violent Social Collaboration: Beyond Entertainment- Developing Video
Games with Games with a Purpose [pdf]
Project Report
Benjamin Dubois
From Trauma to Trail: Proposing New Methods for Examining the Variability of Sharp
Force Trauma on Bone [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Amanda Feldman
Understanding Participation of Racial and Ethnic Groups in Multiple Sclerosis Clinical
Trails [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Angela Fuller
Connecting Archaeology and Community at Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park [pdf]
Project Report
Karen Johansson
Ritual and Religion in the Ohlone Cultural Area of Central California [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Douglas A. Jones
The Temporal Dating and Analysis of the Archaeological Assemblage Recovered from a
Portion of Prehistoric Site, “’Arma ’Ayttakiš Rúmmey-tak” (Place of the Spirit Woman
Spring) CA-SCL-125 [pdf]
Project Report
Elisabeth Mabie
Looking Backward, Moving Forward: The Experiences of Indo-Fijian Immigrant Women in
California [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Ambrita Nand
The Maritime Shipping Industry of the Geographic Region Bounded by Aptos and Alviso,
California, 1850-1950 [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Rebecca M. Spitzer
Understanding Participation in the Underground Economy in Oakland [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Ida Wilson
2014
Native American Response and Resistance to Spanish Conquest in the San Francisco Bay
Area, 1769-1846 [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Gustavo Flores
Anthropology in the Park: An Investigation into the Cultural and Civic Potential of
Public Spaces [pdf]
Project Report
Emily Green
Experiences of Immigration Among Women from Taiwan [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Robert Johnston
The Excavation and Analysis of the Prehistoric Caribbean Remains: A Bioarchaeological
Case Study of a Prehistoric Female from Nevis, West Indies [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Chris Keith
What Motivates Volunteers?: Organizational Analysis of the Japanese American Museum
of San Jose [pdf]
Project Report
Chika Minami
Teaching Middle School Students to Level-Up: A Formative Evaluation of Integrating [pdf]
Project Report
Anne Newman
Health Matters Olinder: Health Needs and Practices in Olinder Neighborhood [pdf]
Project Report
Mercedes Ramans
The Temporal Dating and Analysis of the Archaeological Assemblage Recovered from a
Portion of Prehistoric Site, “Satos Rini Rumaytak” (At the Hill Above the River Site)
CA-SCR-12 [pdf]
Project Report
Jerry Starek
Forager Subsistence Regimes in the Thai-Malay Peninsula: An Environmental Archaeological
Case Study of Khao Toh Chong Rockshelter, Krabi [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Hannah Van Vlack
2013
Globalization and Agriculture: Ensuring a Sustainable Future [pdf]
Project Report
Sarah Linn Gallardo
Reading Partners Tutor Perspectives Project: An Ethnographic Evaluation of Volunteer
Experiences [pdf]
Project Report
Bethany Grove
The Multi-Movement: An Ethnography of Occupiers and Occupying [pdf]
Project Report
Hannah Hart
Refugee Resettlement in Oakland: Improving the Volunteer-Client Encounter [pdf]
Project Report
Kristin Keller
Formation of China’s First National Park: Interactions Among International NGO, Prefectural
Government and Local Communities [pdf]
Project Report
Jing Li
Live Journal Loyalty and Melodrama: A Stakeholder Relations in Web 2.0 [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Christine Moellenberndt
How is the Past Preserved in a Pluralistic Society? A Case Study of the Portuguese
in East San José as a Model for Interpreting Immigrant Landscapes [pdf]
Project Report
Catherine Mistely
Designing Software to Meet the Needs of International Users [pdf]
Project Report
David Mohr
Sabores Latinos: A Needs Assessment of Food Preferences of Latino Food Bank Clients [pdf]
Project Report
Sara Salinas
From Silk Road to Silicon Valley: A Needs Assessment of English Language Services
for the Iranian Community [pdf]
Project Report
Cheryl Tombrink
2013
Ethnographic Assessment of Quantified Self Meetup Groups [pdf]
Project Report
Adam Butterfield
The Breast Cancer Journey [pdf]
Project Report
Jessica Donohue
Las Campeonas de Salud: Health Access, Social Networks, and Group Sustainability:
An Ethnographic Evaluation [pdf]
Project Report
Sabrina Duenas
Madres Líderes: Empowering Our Families and Community [pdf]
Project Report
Jaqueline Gamboa
Aging Arab Immigrants: Family Portraits from the San Francisco Bay Area [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Kanhong Lin
The Climate Clock Initiative: Interaction and Network Assessment (INA) [pdf]
Project Report
Loan Luu
Tod@s SOMOS Lideres: Cultivating Grassroots Leaders in Mayfair: An Ethnographic-based
Evaluation and Curriculum Notes of a Grassroots Leadership Program Serving Spanish-speaking
Women in East San Jose [pdf]
Project Report
Maribel Martinez
Capacity Building in the Technological Age: A Collaborative Project at Homeboy Industries [pdf]
Project Report
Josephine Nguyen
Evaluation of Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Design Research [pdf]
Project Report
Mark Pratt
Fostering Empowerment within Special Education: Building Communication in a Specialized
Program [pdf]
Project Report
Kate Snider
Developing Cultural Agility between Emergency Medical Providers and Vietnamese-Americans
in Santa Clara County [pdf]
Project Report
Jason Vega
2011
Water and Power: Agricultural Intensification in Windward North Kohala, Hawai’i Island [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Christopher Avery
Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship: A Microfinance Project in Santa Clara County [pdf]
Project Report
Mayra Cerda
Silicon Valley Sparkplugs Project: Bridging Anthropology and Media to Address Issues
of Civic Engagement [pdf]
Project Report
Nicole Conand
The Future of Diversity: A Forecasting Project [pdf]
Project Report
Jillian Griffith
Beyond Pink: Living with a Terminal Breast Cancer Diagnosis [pdf]
Project Report
Mary Koskovich
A Community of Practice in Obsidian Studies [pdf]
Project Report
John Schlagheck
A Community Needs Assessment on Mental Health Services Among Native American Indians
in Santa Clara, California [pdf]
Project Report
Auda Velazquez-Rivera
2010
A Hazardous Waste Management Solution for Bogota [pdf]
Project Report
Andrea Arjona
Heal Project Process Report: Arriving at a Charrette to Effect Change at SJSU [pdf]
Project Report
Marina Corrales
Organizations and their Component Individuals Venturing Outside Expertise [pdf]
Project Report
Candice Heidebrecht
Collective Efficacy as it Relates to Public Safety in the Olinder Neighborhood [pdf]
Project Report
Michelle Nero
Perception of Risk: Evaluating Women’s Health Concerns in Silicon Valley for Creating
a Viable Online Business [pdf]
Project Report
Vanessa Potter
2009
Gender, Status and Shellfish in Precontact Hawaii [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Robin Connors
Native California Prehistory and Climate in the San Francisco Bay Area [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Stella D’Oro
Rooted in Research: Anthropology and Design in Three Collaborative Projects [pdf]
Project Report
Alicia Murphy
Where the Pampa Meets the Moon: A Search for Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Quillabamba [pdf]
Project Report
Andrea Presler
2008
Applied Anthropology and Business: Financial Planning, Luxury Cars, and Microfinance [pdf]
Project Report
Greg Cabrera
Engineering in the Making: An Ethnography of Product Development [pdf]
Master’s Thesis
Armineh Noravian
