The Boston Opportunity Agenda: A Historic Case Study Of Public-Private Partnership In Education (2007-2019), Timothy M. Lavin

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This historic case study studied the development of the Boston Opportunity Agenda (BOA), a public-private educational partnership, from 2007-2019. Despite significant prominence, influence, and investment from the partners involved, public-private educational partnerships in Boston have been understudied. The intention of this dissertation was to bring an understanding of how this urban educational public-private partnership developed; the motivations of the partners to participate; the partner perceptions of the successes and challenges of the partnership; and the extent of the partnership's influence on the Boston Public Schools.

This case study utilized qualitative methods of document analysis and semi-structured interviews of partnership leaders …

Rocks, Xuting Liu

Theses

ROCKS is a 2D animation thesis film of 6 minutes and 20 seconds and talks about a young woman dealing with difficult memories of her father who is an astronaut and his decision to go away on a long space flight when she was a young girl. The story is about memory, family and making peace with the past, as well as the progress of growing up. The major software used during the entire production process include: Adobe Photoshop, TVPaint, Adobe After Effect and Procreate. It is inspired by some of my own experience as a young girl, and the …

The Storm Is On Us: Communities And Military Mobilization In Civil War Chicago, Jeremy R. Knoll

Honors Capstones

This research project uses primary sources such as regimental histories, records kept by the Adjutant General of Illinois, reporting from the Chicago Tribune, and the published and unpublished memoirs, diaries, and letters of both soldiers and civilians to examine the role communities played in military mobilization in Chicago during the Civil War. An urban environment like Chicago had many such communities, including religious denominations, professional and commercial organizations, militia units, immigrant communities, and political organizations. These communities strongly impacted the mobilization process in Chicago by organizing and supporting certain units, and individual Chicagoans were influenced by their community affiliations when …

Defining African American Authorship, April Quattlebaum

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

James Weldon Johnson and Melvin B. Tolson are pivotal figures of the early 20th century. They represent a fundamental question that has been and is indeed still in the minds of African American authors: What is a Black author? African American authorship necessarily involves the challenge of forging a literary identity in the face of a society structurally and temperamentally predisposed to marginalize and dismiss them. In their creative and scholarly works, Johnson and Tolson methodically dissect Black authorship, looking both to the past and to their present situation as they strive to imagine a future for African American literary …

Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Mental Health Diagnosis Of Maltreated Youth, Shadie Burke

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Racial/ethnic marginalized youth are more likely to receive a misdiagnosis of a mental health disorder than their White peers. Misdiagnosis contributes to existing disparities for racial/ethnic marginalized groups by leading to longer durations of untreated and worsening mental health symptoms. For maltreated youth, receiving a misdiagnosis can lead to a failure to connect with appropriate mental health services, medication regimens, therapeutic foster homes, and academic and developmental resources. To date, very few empirical studies have identified disparities in mental health diagnosis among racial/ethnic marginalized maltreated youth. The present study examined two key research questions: (1) what racial/ethnic disparities in diagnoses …

White Voters And Minority Animus In The Era Of Trump, Zachary Schwartz

Dissertations

Overt and blatant racism of the type that was once used to justify Jim Crow laws and other forms of de facto segregation against Blacks has largely been forced into the margins of society. However, the reduction of overt racism that casts whites as biologically superior to Blacks can be easily confused with a reduction of racism in totality. The election and continued popularity of Donald Trump demonstrates that the conversation on race in the United States needs much more analysis. On multiple occasions during his campaign and presidency, Trump made inflammatory remarks on race and immigration, and yet suffered …

Benjamin Smith Lyman: Geologist At The Intersection Of Hokkaido, Japan, And The United States, Benjamin Ashby

Masters Theses

Benjamin Smith Lyman was a geologist from Northampton, Massachusetts, who was contracted by the Japanese government in 1872 to carry out coal surveys on the island of Hokkaidō 北海道. What started out as a standard geological survey, quickly evolved into a lifelong interest in Japan for Lyman. The large collection of letters, books, photographs, and other documents housed under the Benjamin Smith Lyman Collection at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, serve as a primary source on both early relations between the Japanese and the West and the beginnings of the large network of academic writings which today can be classified …

Holistically Discouraging School Aged Students And Youth From Joining And/Or Becoming Affiliated With Gangs And Gang Violence, Megan Steinhoff

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Currently there is varying research on gang affiliation and how it impacts various communities. Schools are one place where we see gang affiliation and violence affecting a large community. The present Capstone project attempts to look at how school communities can holistically discourage young students from joining a gang or being involved in gang violence. Most importantly, how can educators create a plan to systemically change the way students, especially Black students and students of color, move within the space of education and a school community. Research from Hagadorn (1998) was highly influential in the project. His gang research conducted …

Friends, Brothers, And Murderers: Georgia’S Propaganda War During The American Revolution, Daniel Zane Moore

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Native Americans featured prominently in the letters and military communications of revolutionary Georgians. Georgians called them friends and brothers during treaty talks, “savages” in appeals to the Continental Congress, and honorable and virtuous people when discussing the Natives’ philosophical nature. Each name represented a specific purpose as the Georgians sought to invoke Native Americans in propaganda for the Whigs’ own advantage during the Revolutionary War. The double-talk that spilled forth created a confusing world in which Native Americans played both friend of liberty and “butcher” of innocent women and children in the minds of Georgia Whigs. Throughout the turbulent war …

Translating And Literary Agenting Anna Holmwood’S Legends Of The Condor Heroes, Hong Diao

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

The role of literary agents in translation is intriguing yet under-researched. The mechanism of literary agenting vis-à-vis the initiation, production, and promotion of translated literature is under-explored. How literary agenting affects translation epistemologically, aesthetically, and technically remains uncharted territory. This dissertation attempts to fill the gap by investigating how Anna Holmwood, a translator-cum-literary agent, conceives and conducts the English translation of Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan (“射雕英雄傳”), a wuxia (武俠) magnum opus by Jin Yong (金庸).

It first employs an NVivo-based theme analysis to unearth how the translation has been received and perceived by general readers. Next, it develops the notion of …

Learning To Interpret Fluid Type Phenomena Via Images, Simron Thapa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Learning to interpret fluid-type phenomena via images is a long-standing challenging problem in computer vision. The problem becomes even more challenging when the fluid medium is highly dynamic and refractive due to its transparent nature. Here, we consider imaging through such refractive fluid media like water and air. For water, we design novel supervised learning-based algorithms to recover its 3D surface as well as the highly distorted underground patterns. For air, we design a state-of-the-art unsupervised learning algorithm to predict the distortion-free image given a short sequence of turbulent images. Specifically, we design a deep neural network that estimates the …

The Black Panther Party And Mother Country Radicals: Black-White Coalitions And Alliances During The Black Power Movement, Marcus P. Smith

Africana Studies Theses

This research examines the collaborative relationships the Black Panther Party formed with white radical groups in the United States for the purposes of contributing to allyship theory and praxis and understanding antiracist and radical political consciousness development among whites in response to black political ideology and racialized political events using a historical analysis methodology utilizing a review and content analysis of primary sources including archival records, autobiographies, newspapers, and essays, and secondary sources including Panther anthologies, and Civil Rights Movement and Panther histories. This research argues the Black Panther Party and the diversity of collaborative relationships it formed nationally with …

Improving Literacy Homework In The Primary Grades Through Interactive Family Reading, Lisa Mulder

Culminating Experience Projects

Homework is common practice in most elementary school classrooms as teachers try to reinforce material learned in class through the help of parents and families at home. However, research has shown homework to have little impact on students’ academic achievement in the elementary grades. Homework can even cause an increased stress level in young students, a negative impact on motivation, and friction with family members. Elementary parents and teachers need to reevaluate homework’s effectiveness and its impact on today’s busy families.

This project proposes reframing traditional paper-pencil review homework in favor of family-centered reading time. When students are given too …

Linguistic Perceptions And Ideologies Of Race And Whiteness In The Usa, Taylor James Chlapowski

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

With white supremacist discourses on the rise in recent years, it is important to investigate the ideologies that construct whiteness in the United States. The definition of who is considered white has been quite vague throughout the history of the US, with conflicting views of who is considered white across society and generations. Language has been found to be a key factor in constructions of race (Alim, 2016a, 2016b) and varieties ideologized as Standard English tend to be associated with whiteness (Bucholtz, 2016).

This study sets out to develop a better understanding of how linguistic varieties relate to perceptions, categorizations, …

It Takes Two To Tango : Understanding The Processes That Lead To Simultaneous Changes In Tropical Cyclone Intensity And Size And Communicating The Associated Hazards To Emergency Managers, Emily A. Paltz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The severity of tropical cyclone (TC) hazards is modulated by both TC intensity and size. More intense TCs produce stronger storm surges and increase wind damage. Larger TCs potentially impact more people, increase the duration of TC hazards, produce stronger storm surges and increase the amount of rainfall and flooding. Thus, accurately forecasting both TC intensity and size and effectively communicating those forecasts are critical to properly preparing communities for TC impacts. Forecast accuracy can be improved by enhancing our understanding about the processes that cause changes in TC intensity and size. This research divides the Extended Best Track dataset …

The Power Of Presentation: How Attire, Cosmetics, And Posture Impact The Source Credibility Of The Female Expert Witness, Alexandra Repke

Dissertations

While previous research has examined behavior-based presentation styles of the female expert witness in light of source credibility, further research is required to examine the effect of other modifiable factors on her credibility, since perceived credibility affects the intermediate judgments that lead to ultimate legal decisions. This study investigated the impact of both behavior-based (i.e., posture) and appearance-based (i.e., attire and cosmetic use) factors on the female expert witness’ source credibility Model attractiveness served as a covariate in this study. A four-way (2 x 2 x 2 x 2) between-subjects analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that, beyond an effect of …

Katie Parnell's Final Master's Portfolio, Kathryn Parnell

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio includes insight, analysis, research, and pedagogy concerning the following topics:

The Lost Prince: A Multi-Theory Analysis of Peter Morgan’s Representation of Prince Charles in The Crown

Semiotic Content Analysis: Gender Stereotypes in Laundry Advertisements

Emma Extended Lesson Plan and Critical Essay

Indigenous Language Revitalization Efforts In Canada During Covid-19: Facilitating And Maintaining Connections Using Digital Technologies, Laura Gallant

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores how people involved in Indigenous language revitalization efforts in Canada have responded and adapted to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to November 2020. Through virtual interviews, an online survey, an analysis of tweets about Indigenous language revitalization in Canada, and observations of webinars among people involved in language work, this research focuses on how people have adjusted and accelerated their Indigenous language activities during a prolonged period of social isolation. Genocidal policies and practices continue to reproduce inequities for Indigenous peoples and are affecting those involved in Indigenous language work during COVID. This thesis …

Running With The Land: Racial Capitalism, Restrictive Covenants, And The Pre-Redlining Roots Of The Private Real Estate Market In Syracuse, New York, Michael Thomas Kelly

Theses - ALL

This thesis locates the roots of the private U.S. real estate market, and racially segregated housing geographies, within a broader, multi-century project of establishing, racializing, and spatializing private property in land. Using archival methods, I examine and directly connect late 18th century land speculation and settlement, early 20th century real estate capitalist class formation, and the construction of all-white suburban sub-divisions based on racially restricted covenants. I investigate the city of Syracuse – a small, post-industrial city in Upstate New York on unceded Onondaga Nation land and one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. I argue …

Language Learning Effectiveness (Outcome) Of An Online Synchronous Efl Program Compared To An Esl Face-To-Face Program, Eduardo L. Trindade Ph.D.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Abstract

To provide English learning opportunities to International students while in their home countries, I designed an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) synchronous online program delivered via videoconferences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an Online EFL program when compared to a regular in-person Intensive English Program (IEP) where students are immersed in the American culture. The control group was composed of 88 students from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in South America that took the IEP offered by a private university in Kentucky in the past five years. Students in the control group had …

Soundtrack Of A Life: A Musical Narration Of A Military Veteran’S Life, Caroline M. Melcher

Recital Papers

Soundtrack of a Life: A Musical Narration of a Military Veteran’s Life

"These Their Women Bear After Them, With Corne, Acorns, Morters, And All Bag And Baggage They Use:" An Archaeological History Of Indigenous Households Along The Rappahannock River, Virginia, Josue Roberto Nieves

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation summarizes all research findings pertaining to 2017-2018 Archaeological Excavations at Camden Farm, Virginia. The goal of the project was to seek out a previously unexcavated Indigenous house site within the property’s “Post-Contact” (i.e.,1646 - ~1720 A.D.) Rappahannock Indian village in order to analyze structural morphology and the suite of artifact assemblages relating to domestic production, consumption, and exchange practices. Findings were compared to a previously excavated house site from the same village, in addition to similar domestic contexts dating between the “Late Woodland II” and “Contact” (A.D. 1200-1650) periods from the Virginia’s James River valley. The results of …

"Take It With You": Humanizing And Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies As Racial Literacy In Undergraduate Education, Robert Jamaal Downey

Doctoral Dissertations

Given the current racially charged climate around the world, but more specifically in the US and on college campuses, we as instructors of undergraduates are vastly underserving our future generations by avoiding tough questions in the classroom surrounding race. Without the proper language and space to discuss issues surrounding race, students are left behind without the words to express how they are thinking, feeling, and dreaming. The purpose of this qualitative critical ethnographic study through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework is to examine the ability of humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogies to elicit racial literacy in three White undergraduate …

“The End Of One Shall Be The End Of All”: Solidarity In 19th Century African American Texts, David Puthoff

English Language and Literature ETDs

This project examines how African American authors imagined solidarity through documents before, during, and after the Civil War. While solidarity as a framework has yet to be elucidated for literary studies, I draw on political theory and especially the works of the authors themselves to examine how solidarity as a strategy operates to facilitate cooperation between people of different or similar races or occupations in the periods of abolitionism, war, Reconstruction, and Redemption. I argue that these authors remember, imagine, and articulate small scale acts such as listening, organizing, making material aid, promoting literacy, and fundraising in the pursuit of …

Knowledge From Below, Meghan Surges

Masters Theses

This thesis elucidates artistic research on the programmed world and its brutal machines. It describes a practice that hones a deviant worldview while confronting ubiquity. Applying web scraping as an investigative tool and a filmmaking methodology, I work with archives of traffic images. The pictures, portraying the smart city through its scattered, self-surveilling eyes, offer a cinematic mirror of reality. I select, annotate, and edit sequences to expose agents of administrative violence. Rejecting a vision of progress that rests on exploitation, I aim to destabilize readings of surveillance and policing as beacons of safety. My work proposes models for seeing …

Oral Testimonies Of Female Emigrants From Northern Ireland: Finding The The Universal And Unique Stories Of Migration, Lisa Ahmed

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this paper is to add a nuanced understanding to the study of women and migration. By using oral testimonies to conduct this narrative research study I was able to add to growing body of knowledge on women and migration. This study focused on women who arrived in the United States from Northern Ireland, for family the migration process started in Germany. The terms migration, emigration and immigration are used in the paper to describe people in movement within and across national borders. This narrative illustrates some of the consequences when nation states use their power to facilitate …

The Evolution Of Protest And Social Movements In The National Basketball Association From The Mid-20th Century To The Present Day, Luke Messersmith

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I focus on the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the evolution of how its personnel—players, coaches, refs, owners, etc.—navigated racism, politics, social injustice, platform utilization, and other pressing topics from the mid-1900s to the present day. Monumental players that used their platform in the NBA to inspire change include Bill Russell (1960s), Kareem-Abdul Jabaar (1970s), Craig Hodges (1990s), and LeBron James (2010s). These men and many others risked their images, and in some cases, their NBA careers, in order to protest, march, boycott, and kneel for causes they believed in, such as the civil rights movement and …

The Latino Achievement Gap: The Role Of Teachers In The Success Or Failure Of Latino Students, Sandra Gonzalez-Adamski

Dissertations

Understanding that the academic achievement of Latino students continues to lag behind their White peers, this study explored the role of the teacher in the success or failure of Latino school-age children. The methodology utilized for this research was qualitative. I used a narrative approach to discuss the thoughts, opinions, and insights of the six teachers interviewed for this study. The in-depth conversations with the participants suggested differences in how Latino and White teachers view their Latino students. Most of the White teachers suggested that academic achievement can be reached through explicit vocabulary instruction, reading a wide variety of books, …

Situational Awareness, Maeve Higgins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is a long-form essay exploring the politics and power at play along the U.S.-Mexico border. My objective with this piece was to better understand how and why this increasingly militarized border has grown in the past decades, as well as who is profiting and who is suffering because of this growth. To do this I relied on academic theorists, journalism and on-the-ground research. I discovered that the year I visited The Border Security Expo was also the year that Customs and Border Patrol saw their biggest ever budget, and I gained insight into what they spent this budget on. …

'A Deadly Menace To All Young Womankind': Seduction And Protective Legislation In America, 1850-1923, Elissa Michelle Isenberg

Dissertations - ALL

"A Deadly Menace to All Young Womankind": Seduction and Protective Legislation in America, 1850-1923 looks at sexual harassment before it was an actionable offense. Although female domestic servants have endured unwanted sexual attention for most of American history, the entry of women into wage labor in factories and offices during the late nineteenth century dramatically increased the number of girls and women that were subjected to what we today call harassment. Careful examination of American newspaper archives, court records, and reformers' personal papers have uncovered cases of unsolicited sexual advances toward women, and have demonstrated that sexual harassment was considered …