Digital Commons Network^™

Contralto Marian Anderson As Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie Rocke

Doctoral Dissertations

Marian Anderson was an internationally-acclaimed contralto and goodwill ambassador for the United States government. In her role as a political asset, she utilized her talents to evoke a perception of the United States that differed from past assessments involving race relations. To provide an understanding of how she became an icon and asset to the State Department, three theoretical frameworks are applied—performativity, prototype, and social semiotics. In classical theories of performativity, classification separates us into categories and hierarchies, while concepts help us to categorize, understand, and predict the material world. Scholars have defined identity as a series of citational acts …

The Role Of Fathers On Masculinity And Obesity In African American Adolescent Males, Ailton S. Coleman

Doctoral Dissertations

African American adolescents suffer higher rates of obesity than European American adolescents. Greater prevalence in obesity among African American adolescent males is a particular concern for public health as adolescent obesity is linked to an increase in later life co-morbidities and earlier mortality, which African American adult males already experience at higher rates.

The goal of this dissertation was to understand socio-behavioral factors associated with obesity in African American adolescent males. To accomplish this goal, three different studies were conducted, including a systematic literature review. The systematic review examined research that focused on paternal influences on adolescent weight status.

Study …

The Lived Experience Of African American Caregivers Caring For Adult African American Patients With Heart Failure: A Phenomenological Study, Heather Marie Hamilton

Doctoral Dissertations

An estimated 5.7 million people in the United States are currently living with heart failure (HF); this population is expected to double in the next 25 years due to advances in modern medicine that have decreased the mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases. Because of the complex regimen required, the help of family members, friends or neighbors is crucial to adequately managing symptoms and preventing hospital readmissions. Descriptive phenomenology underpins this study. Formal interviews were used to explore African American caregivers’ lived experience in caring for African American heart failure patients. Snowball sampling and purposive sampling yielded a total of 10 …