Digital Commons Network^™

Flightless, Danielle Gorin

Theses

The stories in this collection occupy a range of genres: realist literary fiction, slice of life, horror, magical realism/fabulism. While most of the pieces are short fiction, there is one short short, and one flash piece. What unites these disparate styles and forms is a concern with the everyday, with family dramas. Flightless is interested in exploring the dynamics of different familial relationships, particularly that of mothers and their children. These relationships, even good ones, can be fraught with expectations, guilt, and feelings of obligation unique to the expected roles of mothers and children, and my stories seek to investigate …

Groundless, Niara Jackson

Theses

Groundless is a collection of realist short stories that follow original characters as they move into a new understanding of themselves. They may think they are grounded in who they are, but each character learns new things that often contradict what they think they know about themselves. As with anyone, it is important that these characters re-examine who they think they are and look outward – what has made them that way? Is their perception accurate? Are they being fair to themselves and those around them? New understandings of what they believe about themselves and about their world are always …

Developing Musicians Out Of Instrumentalists: A Comprehensive Guide To Improve Intonation Skills In Intermediate Band, Andrew Bryant Smith

Theses

This project will focus on the fundamental skills taught in an intermediate band program and assess skills needed to enhance their musicianship. One of the primary musical components studied is the development of individual and group intonation by utilizing a more concrete focus on the development of fundamental skills associated. The final deliverable focused on the fundamental skills needed to improve intonation. The guide will also include a compilation of instrument-specific strategies and tendencies having to do with the development of the skills outlined.

Artemisia: A Reflection Of Women’S Rights, Julie Mcgrath

Theses

This thesis will analyze and document the historiographic perspective of Artemisia Gentileschi and the changing perspective of the artist and her artwork since the 1960s. The research will explore the changing of perception of Artemisia through various methodologies to understand the evolution of her story. By looking at the change from modernism to postmodernism, I will explain how the latter opened up the feminist movement and methodology, and how the four waves of feminism have directly impacted the perception of her life and her body of work. Without these changes, scholarship would not have developed a greater understanding of Artemisia …

Understanding Judith In A Misogynistic World: Female Representations In 16th Century Florence, Annissa Conditt

Theses

Judith is a brave female biblical heroine that performs the courageous act of decapitating Holofernes to save the town of Bethulia. Many artworks of Judith provide a different perception of her, as artists portray Judith as weak, feeble, and indifferent; thus, stripping her of the courageous and heroic portrayal that she deserves. The action of a female dominating and overpowering a man is unusual for the time; however, Judith was considered a very significant symbol for Florence and the Medici family, as she represented liberty, virtue, and victory over the strong. Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes was commissioned and created for …

Leveraging Technology And Culturally Relevant Content To Enhance Student Engagement And Classroom Management, Andrea Wojciehowski

Theses

The project focuses upon the application of culturally relevant content, and implementing technology as a means to enhance student engagement, and classroom management. The purpose of the project was to research current classroom management strategies, and implement these strategies, using technology to enhance student engagement, and in turn, enhance student learning, while decreasing disruptive behaviors.

E-Government In The United Arab Emirates: A Study Of The Abu Dhabi Government Contact Centre, Hessa Mohammed Aleisaei

Theses

In this current age of information technology (IT), electronic government (e-government) has transformed the interaction between the government and the citizens. To make this transformation contextually and locally relevant, this research examines the efficiency of e-government in Abu Dhabi by undertaking a case study of the efficiency of the electronic contact channels at the Abu Dhabi Government Contact Center (ADGCC). It, also, identifies the challenges faced by the ADGCC and provides recommendations to overcome the challenges accordingly. The study model for this research is developed by reviewing the key concepts related to the implementation of the e-government. The primary research …

A Means To An End: Adding Value To The Preference Debate, Laura Miller

Theses

Helping disadvantaged people involves trusting them to make the best possible choices. Under scrutiny, however, it seems that the disadvantaged often fail to make the best choices for themselves. In this paper, I oppose both the traditional philosophical view that some choices of the disadvantaged are deformed or adaptive, and the view of preference utilitarians, who favor aiming to satisfy all preferences.

My rejection of the traditional views of preference is founded on my identification of two distinct kinds of preferences and their relationship to each other: means preferences and end preferences. Means preferences are those choices that are made …

On Unifying Declarative Memory, Thomas Ames

Theses

The distinction between episodic and semantic declarative memory systems, as introduced by Tulving (1972, updated in 1984, 1991), was a revolutionary approach to human memory. While the distinction is now widely endorsed in the study of memory, there are debates about what constitutes each system’s domain, how each system is used, how each system functions, and the phenomenal experiences associated with the functioning of each system. On the basis of clinical studies and insights from conditions affecting memory, this paper argues that the episodic/semantic distinction can be reframed as a result of a unified declarative memory system. In this view, …

Flowering In The Springtime: An Iconographical Analysis Of Botticelli’S Primavera, Eynav Ovadia

Theses

This thesis examines how the iconographical program of Botticelli’s Primavera allows the painting to function as a how-to guide of sexuality for an aristocratic young bride in late-fifteenth century Florence. This thesis argues that the inclusion and juxtaposition of specific mythological figures creates a message about the appropriate locations and behaviors expected of a woman when expressing her sexuality. This iconographical program takes into account popular vernacular literature, allegorical meanings of mythology, and Christian understanding of Classical myth in order to produce a message that is meant to be understood by a very specific audience.

Colonialism To Carnival: Tracking Centuries Of Racialized Imagery Of Brazilian Woman, Livia Dias

Theses

The thesis explores how the image of Brazilian women, which is highly racialized and sexualized, was constructed historically, and try to understand why Brazilian women are seen as they are in the twentieth century. Throughout the chapters, I will analyze historical documents that I argued helped to construct this image inside Brazil and worldwide.

The Development Of A Standards Based Grading Assessment Plan In The Sixth Grade Choral Classroom, Olivia Mae Howard

Theses

This project focuses on the best assessment methods for standards-based grading in the sixth grade choral classroom. In the middle school choral world, resources are limited in the area of standards-based grading in the sixth grade choral classroom. This project was created to study and focus on how the new national standards connect with assessments methods utilized by choral music educators for sixth grade and then to connect these methods to standards-based grading. The aim of the project was to create the best assessment methods to be utilized with the new national music standards in the sixth grade choral music …

Talking 80s: An Online Brand, Charles B. Mcpherson

Theses

This project focuses on the organic establishment of an online brand, from conception to execution. The primary focus is the steps taken to establish an online brand. The aim of the project is to discuss the results of steps going into the brand creation, what worked and what did not work. Furthermore, the project discusses possible solutions to avoid potential issues and problems in brand creation.

Galatea: A Representation Of The Nature Of The Goddess, Courtney Flamm

Theses

This paper analyzes the figure Galatea, including the original narratives of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the visual representations of her character. Examinations of these images and the circumstances that surround Galatea’s character, including her association with Venus, provide an in-depth exploration of Galatea’s relationship to the archetypal Mother Goddess and the role of feminine deities throughout history. As interpreted in the prehistoric past, the ancient Mother Goddess was worshipped as an all-encompassing deity in ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Aztec, and Greek societies. Her duality as the source of life and death provided a superior nature to her surrounding male counterparts that was …

Examining The Fears, Benefits, And Applications Of Teaching Improvisation In General Music, Krystle Boyd

Theses

This project focused on identifying and resolving fears associated with teaching improvisation in the general music classroom. The primary focus was on music educators and providing them with reassurance, reasoning, and plans on how to begin the process of teaching improvisation and follow through so that it is a well-developed initiative that will be built upon and utilized for years to come. This project demonstrated plans for an entire year of 5th grade general music instruction and provided a curriculum map, lesson plans, rubrics, and a manual of explanation for the lessons and activities.

Leper/Cat, Bryan Halvarsson

Theses

This novella is about an artist stricken with leprosy who has to spend the rest of his living days on a mountainside with a particularly large cat.

The Limits Of Sociality, Johnna B. Mcgovern

Theses

There is a longstanding tradition in Western philosophy of emphasizing the capacity for reflection in theories about humans’ characteristic nature. In Talking to Ourselves: Reflection, Ignorance, and Agency, John Doris attempts to shift the focus to an emphasis on human sociality. Particularly, Doris argues that sociality, both implicitly and in the form of collaborative reasoning, is what makes humans best equipped for moral improvement. This collaborativism possesses a defining role in his account of agency and responsibility. This thesis attempts to gain an understanding of how sociality affects moral behavior and to argue that it is not conducive to agency …

The Epistemic And Psychological Mechanisms Perpetuating Racism Within The Criminal Justice System, Danielle Walker

Theses

Abstract

Many attempts have been made by philosophers, political activists, psychologists, historians, social advocates, and others to explain the mechanisms at play in the perpetuation and resulting manifestations of systemic and institutional racism. On one side of the debate there lies a theory that there is an epistemic failure at the root of racial bias towards Blacks, white ignorance, a collective amnesia regarding what has and does take place in society, as it pertains to their oppression and isolation, like the view of philosopher Charles W. Mills. According to Mills, this type of ignorance, or non-knowing, is a cognitive phenomenon …

What The Water Brought Me: A Composite Of Two Short Stories And A Novel Portion, Shannon Strawhun

Theses

This thesis is a collection of two short stories and three chapters from my novel, Shore Walkers. The short stories, “Lights Against Your Back” and “Thunder and Dust” are a part of a larger collection I have been working on. Each story is based on a different being or place from Gulliver’s Travels. Though the stories can be read separately, there are characters and settings which eventually link all the works in the collection. The stories follow characters in different places and time in the United States. “Thunder and Dust” centers around the dismantling of the Hearst Castle in the …

How To Distinguish Qualities And Dispositions, Seth Reed

Theses

There is an intuitive difference between a qualitative and a dispositional predicate. Qualitative predicates seemingly refer to inherent features of an object, while dispositional predicates point outward to possible interactions. Attempts to further spell this distinction have proven difficult, however. Past approaches have either started from metaphysical assumptions or compared paradigmatic cases of each side-by-side. In this paper I offer a new approach to solving this puzzle. Starting with a qualitative or dispositional predicate of a property, we can examine how that differs from a predicate of the other kind that applies, in virtue of that property, to the same …

Evaluating Local, National, Regional And International Interventions In Northern Uganda Using A Human Security Approach, Davis Kawooya

Theses

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1962, Uganda has been beset by conflicts, the worst of which took place between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda (1988-2006), causing a massive humanitarian crisis. The central argument of the thesis is that the government’s programmes in response would have been more successful if they had been people-centred, directly responsive to the suffering of the people, rather than centralised in the hands of a small Kampala-based elite, which controlled access to funding and political power, without transparency or accountability. This research uses human security as an umbrella concept …

St Thomas Aquinas On Affectivity: A Way Forward For Seminary Formation, Bernard Gordon

Theses

St Thomas Aquinas on Affectivity: A Way Forward for Seminary Formation, is a theological argument that St Thomas’ teaching can be applied to the affective formation of men preparing to be Catholic priests. St Thomas’ teaching provides a very helpful understanding of affective maturity and its integral importance for a truly Christian and priestly life in the service of others. It flows from a theological anthropology that recognizes proper affective growth as an integral part of human life and interpersonal relationships. Affective maturity is an essential attribute for the seminarian to acquire because he is preparing to be a priest …

Mark Oliphant And The Invisible College Of The Peaceful Atom, Darren Holden

Theses

The weapon first created by atomic scientists of the 1940s was unprecedented in its power and potential to kill. Not only can it destroy infrastructure and all living things over a wide area, it leaves a haunting invisible footprint of radiation that can continue to harm long after its heat has dissipated. The atomic bomb was first conceptualised, proven and built by civilian scientists and overseen by an ambitious military and wary bureaucrats. The scientists belligerently lobbied their governments to take the potential of atomic weaponry seriously and it is hence not surprising that they are often portrayed as ghoulishly …

Christmas Island: A Question Of Self-Determination, Kelvin Matthews

Theses

The notion of self-determination for Christmas Island has been considered for many years. There have been a range of reports, studies, inquiries and indeed protests (on the Island and in Canberra) over the years that have failed to provide a solution which is satisfactory to residents of Christmas Island and Australia’s Commonwealth Government. Accordingly, the purpose of this thesis is to explore and investigate the possibilities and options of the Territory of Christmas Island:

a) becoming an autonomous self-governing region (Parliamentary Legislative Assembly);
b) being incorporated into the legislative arrangements of West Australia (WA) or Northern Territory (NT);
c) developing …

What’S In A Name? Rhetorical And Political Naming In Toni Morrison’S Song Of Solomon, Kristen V. Edwards

Theses

This thesis aims to examine the usage and history of the various racial labels attributed to Black Americans and how the cyclical usage of Negro, Black, Colored, and African American are a haunting that Black people will most likely face again. As these terms do not fulfill a nationalistic identity, the quest for a satisfactory term still exists. To illustrate this journey, examining the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison will expose how her text subtly charges the reader to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Not only is the reader charged to “know thy self”, but they are …

The Unesco Creative City Network - A Case For Cork City, Colette Scariff-Lalor

Theses

We are all creative, but by the time we are three or four years old, someone has knocked the creativity out of us ~ Maya Angelou

This research study will examine the potential interest and perceived benefits of the UNESCO Creative City designation for Cork City as well as exploring the concept of the Creative City concept and what it may mean for Ireland’s second city. At present, Cork City Council have the intention of applying for Creative City status. Comprising of a network of 180 members with Dublin and Galway currently holding the status, it is important for Cork …

Hearing And Understanding: Vernacular Liturgical Reform At Holy Trinity Abbey New Norcia 1963-1970, Christopher Kan

Theses

The first fruit of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was Sacrosanctum Concilium – the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. Within eight years of its promulgation Roman Catholic worship across the world was transformed, as the language and practice of the rites of the Church underwent significant change. One of the most noticeable changes was the relaxation of the requirement for the Church’s liturgy to be celebrated in Latin and instead be in the local language of the people, the vernacular.

Case studies of the implementation of the post-conciliar reform, as advocated by the Council, are infrequent, especially in the context …

Towards An Aristotelian Theory Of Care: A Comparison Of Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics With Feminist Ethics Of Care, And The Fundaments Of A Virtue Ethical Theory Of Care, Steven Steyl

Theses

The intersection between virtue and care ethics is underexplored in contemporary moral philosophy. This thesis approaches care ethics from a neo-Aristotelian virtue ethical perspective, comparing the two frameworks and drawing on recent work on care to develop a theory thereof. It is split into seven substantive chapters serving three major argumentative purposes, namely the establishment of significant intertheoretical agreement, the compilation and analysis of extant and new distinctions between the two theories, and the synthesis of care ethical insights with neo-Aristotelianism to generate a virtue ethical theory of care. In the first two chapters, I outline virtue ethics and care …

Applying Merleau-Ponty’S Phenomenology Of Perception To Maternal Well-Being In The First Twelve Months Following Birth, Anna Bosco

Theses

Maternal emotional wellbeing is a deeply personal experience embodied through society; however previous literature examining emotional adaptation to motherhood has focussed on negative outcomes, risk factors and pathology. This perspective is limiting and objectifies a mother’s experiences rather than exploring her being-in-the- world. In contrast to current conceptualisations, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception asserts a holistic view of the individual within the world, whereby the subjective body and the lived body are intertwined, and perception is a conversation between the body and the world. This conversation is how the mother embodies the world within her being, for example how she …

The Great Wings Of Silence: Servant Absence And Presence In The English Country House Tradition, Ellen O'Brien

Theses

Despite the fundamental role of the servant in the historic English country house, servant representation within the country house genre lacks depth and detail. Rounded servant figures do not feature prominently throughout the accumulated textuality surrounding the country house. Yet, servants, and the symbiotic community of which they are a part, comprise an integral part of the country house ideal. As articulated by Malcolm Kelsall and others, the country house ideal informs the representation of remembered and imagined country houses, equally reliant on a servant community. The ideal may be described as an often-ambiguous composite of historical practice, cultural perception, …