Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The Relationship Between The Quality Of Life And Race Of Lung Cancer Survivors, Alina S. Wise

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Purpose: The relationship between racial disparities and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of lung cancer patients is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to quantify the overall HRQoL of lung cancer patients and compare differences in HRQoL among racial groups in the United States.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS), a population-based national cross-sectional study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The BRFSS is conducted annually in all 50 states and collects information on demographics, health behaviors, health-related experiences, health conditions, use of medications, and use of …

The Evolution Of Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Health Outcomes, Megan T. Hoang

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Health disparities between different racial/ethnic groups in the United States are substantial. When reviewed across an extensive body of literature, these disparities have been demonstrated to persist even when socioeconomic status, geographic region, health conditions, treatment methods, and patient access-related variables are controlled. This ultimately leads to higher mortality rates among minority patients, making disparities in health a highly prevalent issue. However, the literature suggests that while racial and ethnic disparities in health have been widely examined, research documenting the evolution of these changes over time is lacking. This motivates the research questions: (1) How has the impact of racial …

The Interactive Impact Of Social Identities On Voter Turnout In The 2012 Presidential Election, Karla M. Mendez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The first Black American president ran for re-election in the 2012 election, which saw record-breaking voter turnout. After this election, scholars sought to examine what social identities impacted voter turnout and, found that non-Hispanic Black voters played a critical role in shaping President Obama’s success. Although the effects of social identities on voter turnout are the focus of an extensive body of existing research, many scholars study the separate effects of characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, gender or party identification. Utilizing public opinion data from the 2016 General Survey Study (GSS), this paper seeks to examine the intersectional effects of race, …

Gender Ideology, Gender Consciousness, And Identity Among Conservative Baptist Women: An Intersectional Perspective, Marina I. Rivera Ramos

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this qualitative study, I interviewed 13 women from two separate conservative Baptist congregations in Central Florida, one English-speaking and the other Hispanic. The purpose of this research was to explore the ways in which conservative Baptist women develop their identity as women, the gender ideologies they espouse, their experiences in ministry, and the possibility that they can achieve gender consciousness without aligning with feminist principles. In addition, my research employs an intersectional perspective to demonstrate differences in the experiences of white women and women of color in the church. This study consisted of semi-structured interviews with women from both …

Race-Based Adjustment In Egfr Algorithms: An Integrative Literature Review, Leah E. Utt

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Background: There is a 3-fold risk of developing end stage kidney disease in Non-Hispanic African Americans compared to Non-Hispanic White Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), one of the fundamental algorithms for coordinating treatment for kidney disease which factors in age, race, gender, and levels of creatinine, may pose an issue in this vulnerable population. Currently African Americans receive a correction factor between 1.21 and 1.16 to their eGFR to adjusting the value higher, potentially impacting appropriate kidney disease classification, and delaying beneficial interventions (National Kidney Foundation, 2020).

Methods: A systematic literature search …

The Persistence And Disproportionate Impact Of Felon Disenfranchisement, Rebecca Jaffe

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This paper seeks to understand the persistence of disenfranchisement policies and the disproportionate impact these policies have on marginalized groups of the American electorate, specifically black Americans. Felon disenfranchisement, or the restriction of voting rights for criminals convicted of felonies, has been a long-standing policy throughout the United States. Using public opinion data from the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS), this paper analyzes how certain characteristics, such as race, age, and political party identification, can influence opinions about democratic rights and whether criminals should lose theirs once convicted. The results of this analysis could help explain why disenfranchisement policies have …

Covid-19 Infection In Hypertensive Patients In Correlation With Race, Elizabeth Durkin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Disparities in healthcare exist in the U.S., particularly between different racial categories. This study investigated the frequency of COVID-19 cases and hypertension cases among five different racial groups (White, Black, Asian, Native American, and Native Hawaiian). The study also examined the correlation between COVID-19 and hypertension. It was hypothesized that, because of genetic predisposition to certain diseases and existing socioeconomic barriers, Black populations would have the highest rates of both COVID-19 and hypertension. It was also proposed that a positive correlation exists between COVID-19 and hypertension frequency. To test this, the Kaiser Family Foundation's data for COVID-19 cases and race …

An Examination Of Oppression Via Anti-Abortion Legislation, Saphronia P. Carson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis utilizes a reproductive justice framework to discuss the impact of anti-abortion legislation and the anti-abortion movement on women of color and low-income women, arguing that reduced access to abortion is oppressive to minority women. Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical framework of this thesis, focusing on feminist Marxism, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and radical and third wave feminist perspectives. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the anti-abortion movement and the major state and federal laws and court cases that have defined women's access to abortion in the United States, including Roe v Wade, the Hyde Amendment, Planned Parenthood v …

How Defendant Characteristics Affect Sentencing And Conviction In The Us, Payton Kuenzli

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This research study analyzes whether or not there is any relationship between sentencing and conviction and certain defendant characteristics in the US legal system. In the midst of a time where the nation is strongly divided politically, the topic is often the center of research projects and discussions in academic journals. Specifically, this research explores the 3 characteristics- race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Within this article, multiple case studies from other journals are cited in which research and experiments have suggested that these factors do have influence on both whether or not a defendant gets convicted or for how long …

The Effect Of Race On Parents' Intent To Vaccinate Their Children Against Human Papillomavirus, Ariana L. Ruiz Aguilar

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted disease that often presents as genital warts, but may also lead to cancers, including those of the vagina, penis, mouth and tonsils. Despite three vaccines being currently available to prevent HPV, the HPV vaccine retains a low national average vaccination rate when compared to the Tetanus-Diptheria- Pertussis (Tdap) vaccine. Considering the need for improvement it is important to identify factors that may be contributing to this low national immunization rate, one of them being parental race. The purpose of this literature review is to identify whether race affects parents' intent to vaccinate their …

Sexual Assault On College Aged Women: Intersectionality Matters, Dhaneen D. Comeau

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Sexual assault on college campuses is a pervasive issue that continues to affect women from a variety of backgrounds. Unfortunately, the narratives of women of color, especially black women are often marginalized even though data shows that they tend to be more susceptible to sexual assault. Using survey questions concerning traditional gender roles, and situations of sexual assault (while considering race and gender), this study will measure the attitudes of 300 college-aged individuals. Data will be analyzed using an ANOVA test to study the combined effects that race and gender may have on the respondents’ perception of victims. Historically, African …

Women On The Line: A Qualitative Study Of Women's Experience Of Work In The Meat Industry, Jessica Jacques

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the experiences of women who work in the meat industry. Drawing from symbolic interaction and standpoint theory frameworks, this research focuses on how gender, race, and nationality influence work experiences and family life for women in comparison to men in the meat industry. This study is based on 15 in-depth interviews with men and women who work in management positions and in the processing rooms of meat companies where non-human animals are disassembled in the production of food. Data collection and analysis were performed using grounded theory methods of inquiry. Participants' stories highlight women's experience in adapting …

Lonely Monsters, Patricia Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lonely Monsters is a full-length feature screenplay that explores the ways in which a classic damsel narrative may be reconsidered. It offers ideas on how death and girlhood may find symmetry. The characters within Lonely Monsters deal with loss, identity of the self versus the world's ideas on self-identity, place, gender, and class. Utilizing the elements of a fairy tale, the narrative seeks to complicate the roles of gender in a cautionary tale. Set in the fictional Florida town of Puerto Palmera, an economic divide between the Estates and the Glades makes for a ripe, troublesome environment for a foul …

Media Coverage And The Ferguson Unrest, Brittanni Wyatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The media aids in bringing to light many social issues across the nation each and every day. Historically, police force on African Americans can be seen amongst many media outlets. However, with technological advances the media has flourished which makes it possible for the media to supply coverage of police force on African Americans more now than ever before. This exploratory analysis aimed to uncover ways in which the media has framed the individuals involved in the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014. Articles from four media outlets were used in this analysis. Data was …

Creating Constructs Through Categorization: Gender And Race, Joshua Simpkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In U.S. society, the systems of gender and race operate to privilege and oppress individuals based on their location within these systems. All of the interactions an individual experiences as they go about their day-to-day lives are shaped by these interlocking systems. As a result, there is an extensive body of sociological literature addressing how individuals in U.S. society are privileged and oppressed on the basis of their perceived membership in gender and race categories; however, relatively little research exists examining how individuals come to be seen by others as members of gender and race categories in the first place. …

An Analysis Of Race And Gender In Select Choice Programs Within Brevard County Public Schools, Synthia Doaks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was to compare the student membership population proportions, by race and gender, of Brevard County Public School students with the actual participation in select choice programs offered to Brevard County public high school students. This study was based on an analysis of the scores of 1,152 eighth-grade students who received a score of 4 or 5 on the 2008 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) mathematics and a score of 4 or 5 on the 2008 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) reading and their participation in high school advanced academic courses. The advanced academic choice programs …

Advertising Risk: A Comparative Content Analysis Of Contraceptive Advertisements Targeting Black And White Women, Tiffany Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research compared contraceptive advertisements in two top-circulated publications for white and African American female subscribers, Cosmopolitan and Essence. Data consisted of a sample of 172 contraceptive advertisements from the two magazines published between 1992 and 2012. Quantitative analysis focused on the model(s)' race, age, marital status, and socioeconomic status; the type of contraceptive being advertised; and the reason stated in the ad for using the product. This analysis determined a disparity in the rate of advertisement of doctor-administered contraceptives for the publications of 25.4 percent in Essence magazine and 9.5 percent in Cosmopolitan magazine. Black women were targeted with …

Martin Cenquizqui, Christina Guillen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historical novel, Cortes Cenquizqui, set in sixteenth century Mexico and Spain, follows the conflicted lives and minds of several characters through an age of freshly crossing culture, language, and power. The narrator, Maria de Quesada of high ranking Spanish and Mexica parents, resents the white world for condemning her work as a female healer or curandera. Yet she acknowledges that she is ill-equipped to leave Mexico City to live in the outlying Indigenous villages. Maria recalls the tale of her three brothers who were caught in a web of pride and prejudices. Her interjections throughout shed light on questions …

This Stuff Is Finished: Amiri Baraka's Renunciation Of The Ghosts Of White Women And Homosexuals Past, Susan Stone-Lawrence

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines auto/biographical, theoretical, critical, literary, and dramatic works by and about LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, primarily focusing on the eruption of “Hate Whitey” sentiment and rhetoric that characterized a decadelong cultural nationalist phase of the henceforth selfdeclaredly Black poet-playwright’s career. As a black militant, LeRoi Jones left his white wife and other white associates in Greenwich Village, moved to Harlem, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, converted to Islam, and started the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. This thesis contends that Baraka’s Black Arts Movement era plays emphasize negation of the value of white women and gay men, who had …

The Moral Oppression Of The Teaching Profession: Learning To Transcend, Rebecca Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is both descriptive and philosophical, and at its core, it justifies the need for social foundations of education courses and programs in the university setting. It begins by analyzing the meaning of oppression and the part knowledge plays in confining the individual. The analysis then draws upon Patricia Hill Collins' theory of intersecting oppressions to get at the complexities and restrictions of working in the public schooling institution. It works through the ways in which sexist, classist, and racist practices afflict everyone in the institution through the bureaucratic mechanism and collateral oppression. The four components that make up …

The Latina/O Student's Experience In Social Studies: A Phenomenological Study Of Eighth Grade Students, Christopher Busey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research investigation was to explore the experiences of eighth-grade Latina/o students in a large, urban school in the Southeastern United States. Overall, the study uncovered the essence of the Latino/a student experience in social studies and furthermore revealed that social studies is not meeting the needs of Latino students. Using phenomenology as a method of research, two interviews were conducted with twelve research participants who were selected through purposive sampling. In addition to the interviews, students wrote narratives and drew images as a form of data triangulation. The goal was to give students various methods for …

Showcasing Self: An Intersectional Analysis Of Body Type Presentation In Online Daters, Andrew Latinsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from the online dating site Match.com, this paper performs a content analysis examining the relationships between race, gender, and sexuality as both independent variables and as intersections on impression management strategies in online dating. Impression management strategies form a foundational core of how people interact with others in social situations. This analysis focuses on impression management strategies by examining how people advertise their body type in a public arena. Analysis also draws upon the types of bodies these people desire in an ideal date, as a second method of looking at the norms surrounding the ideal body …

Interracial Lesbian And Gay Couples: Navigating Private And Public Experiences, Anne Bubriski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the private and public experiences of Black/White interracial lesbian and gay couples. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and intersectional feminism, this research focuses on how the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality influence relationship experiences and family processes in both private and public spaces for interracial same-sex couples. This study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with individuals in Black/White lesbian and gay relationships. Participants’ stories highlight intersectionality in terms of the ways interracial lesbian and gay couples navigate these interpersonal and public spaces. Participant experiences suggest that the dichotomy of private/public is …

White And Black Womanhoods And Their Representations In 1920s American Advertising, Lindsey L. Turnbull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 1920s represented a time of tension in America. Throughout the decade, marginalized groups created competing versions of a proper citizen. African-Americans sought to be included in the national fabric. Racism encouraged solidarity, but black Americans did not agree upon one method for coping with, and hopefully ending, antiblack racism. White women enjoyed new privileges and took on more roles in the public sphere. Reactionary groups like the Ku Klux Klan found these new voices unsettling and worrisome and celebrated a white, nativeborn, Protestant and male vision of the American citizen. Simultaneously, technological innovations allowed for advertising to flourish and …

Student Perceptions Of Race And Gender Representations Within College Textbooks, Chastity Lynn Blankenship

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines introductory textbooks images across a variety of disciplines, with particular focus on the ways in which race and gender are shown. This study goes beyond a basic analysis of textbooks, however, and also explores student perceptions of textbook images. My data show that compartmentalization of gender and race into certain themes still occurs within some textbooks. Specifically, white men were more likely to be depicted as hard workers and contributors to the field than any other race and gender. Despite these results, students seemed mixed on the importance of textbook images with many students focused on the …

The Driving Force: A Comparative Analysis Of Gang-Motivated, Firearm-Related Homicides, Christa Polczynski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The knowledge of gang homicides is constantly increasing, but one aspect of gangs rarely studied is drive-by shootings (Dedel 2007; Hutson, Anglin, and Pratts 1994; Hutson, Anglin, and Eckstein 1996; Polczynski 2007; Sanders 1994; Sugarmann and Newth 2007). In this paper are comparative analyses of gang-motivated, firearm-related homicides perpetrated through a drive-by shooting to those which are not perpetrated through a drive-by shooting, by spatial and regression analyses. The data used for the analyses are a combination of incident variables, such as victim, offender, and incident characteristics, as well as social and economic characteristics of the communities in which the …

The Perception Of Homeless People: Important Factors In Determining Perceptions Of The Homeless As Dangerous, Amy Donley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study uses two quantitative and two qualitative data sources to determine if homeless people are viewed as dangerous and if they are what factors contribute to this perception. Areas examined are respondent's characteristics, media affects and the perceived rights of homeless people to urban space. Actual levels of perpetration among the homeless are examined to allow for comparisons between perception and reality to be made. Findings showed that race plays a major role in the perception of homeless peo-ple among whites, while gender is more influential among blacks. There was no rela-tionship between media and perceptions. A negative relationship …

The Taino Are Still Alive, Taino Cuan Yahabo: An Example Of The Social Construction Of Race And Ethnicity, David Cintron

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Definitions and boundaries of race and ethnicity are socially constructed. They are malleable inventions created by the negotiation of ascribed ideas from outside groups and asserted notions from the inside group's membership. The revitalization of Taíno identity and culture within the Puerto Rican and related communities is a classic case example of this negotiation. Although objective conditions exist to recognize the descendants of these Caribbean aboriginals as an identifiable group, their identities are contested and sometimes ridiculed. Even though Taíno heritage is accepted as an essential root of Puerto Rico's cultural and biological make-up, this group has been classified as …

The Sociopolitical Construction Of Race And Literary Representations Of The Biracial Subject, Kara Fontenot

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Twentieth-century American literature incorporates interracial and biracial themes that bring to light the often unnamed and unrecognized biracial identities of many Americans. Unfortunately, despite the potential value for a deeper understanding of the construction of race, these themes have seldom been seriously considered in the context of reevaluating the nature of the system that creates racial labels and categories until the recent emergence of postmodern critical theories. This thesis examines the black-white interracial themes and biracial protagonists in Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928) and Danzy Senna's Caucasia (1998) in order to explore the texts' representations of systems of hegemonic power that …

Exploring Transient Identities: Deconstructing Depictions Of Gender And Imperial Ideology In The Oriental Travel Narratives Of Englishwomen, 1831-1915, Carrieanne Deloach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Englishwomen who traveled to the "Orient" in the Victorian era constructed an identity that was British in its bravery, middle-class in its refinement, feminine in appearance and speech and Christian in its intolerance of Oriental heathenism. Studying Victorian female travel narratives that described journeys to the Orient provides an excellent opportunity to reexamine the diaphanous nature of the boundaries of the public/private sphere dichotomy; the relationship between travel, overt nationalism, and gendered constructions of identity, the link between geographic location and self-definition; the power dynamics inherent in information gathering, organization and production. Englishwomen projected gendered identities in their writings, which …