Digital Commons Network^™

Comparative Study: Educating A Student With Autism In Tanzania And The United States, Laura F. Hippensteel

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Experiencing The Modern American City And Addressing The Slum In The United States And Brazil: 1890-1933, Nathaniel Z. Heggins Bryant

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the treatment of slum spaces in the US and Brazil spanning the period 1890-1933, seeking to understand better the ethics of representation regarding the slum as well as the varying aesthetic agendas and political engagements of four novelists. The works under consideration are A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890) by William Dean Howells, The Slum (1890) by Aluísio Azevedo, Manhattan Transfer (1925) by John Dos Passos, and Industrial Park (1933), by Patrícia Galvão. I chart the varying methods of representation associated with each novel, from Howell’s critical realism to Azevedo’s unique version of naturalism to the fragmented …

Emerging From The Shadow Of Death: The Relief Efforts And Consolidating Identity Of The Irish Middle Classes During The Great Famine, 1845-1851, Jessica K. Lumsden

Masters Theses

This project argued that the leadership of the Irish middle classes was essential in providing relief to the destitute during the Great Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1851. It further argued that middle class leadership in the Famine period translated into a greater class consciousness and subsequent political leadership. Records from the transactions of relief projects from the Society of Friends, pamphlets written by contemporary British and Irish men of the middle and upper classes, and workhouse records illuminated the role of the middle classes in relief efforts. This project joins that primary research to secondary scholarship on the growing political role …

Fracture Biomechanics Of The Human Skeleton, Anne M. Kroman

Doctoral Dissertations

Trauma analysis is a growing area of physical and forensic anthropology. The analysis of fracture patterns is useful in determining cause and manner of death, as well as making inferences about past populations. Traditionally, anthropologists have categorized bone trauma into the discrete categories of blunt, ballistic, and sharp trauma. While these descriptors provide a practical approach, anthropologists need to change the way that trauma is perceived and analysis of fractures is conducted. Bone trauma is best viewed as a continuum (rather than discrete independent categories), with the variables of force, acceleration/deceleration, and surface area of impacting interface governing the appearance …

Shakespeare's Penitents, Lisa Marie Krekelberg

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Writing Back With Light: Postcolonial Film Adaptations Of The Literature Of Empire, Jerod R. Hollyfield

Masters Theses

Since decolonization began after World War II, citizens of colonized nations have attempted to subvert the literature of empire in order to write back to their oppressors and construct national identities. With visual media, such as film, surpassing print as the dominant form of artistic communication, many artists from former colonies have begun using the film medium as another channel to forge identities for their nations. However, in the wake of a decolonized world marked by the increasing power of multinational corporations, artists desiring to write back must address not only their colonizers but also a new form of imperialism …

The Grieving Process: Loss In British Romantic Women's Poetry, Amanda Elizabeth Sharp

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

'Golden Chalice, Good To House A God': Still Life In "The Road", Randall Wilhelm

Cormac McCarthy Conference

No abstract provided.

Southern Foodways And Culture: Local Considerations And Beyond, Lisa J. Lefler

Southern Anthropological Society Conference Proceedings

Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society, Oxford, Mississippi, February 2007

Travels Of A Country Woman, Lera Knox

Newfound Press eBooks

No abstract provided.

Not So Immaculately Conceived: Imagining The Protestant Madonna 1850-1910, Deborah Ann Scaperoth

Doctoral Dissertations

Pius IX in the 1854 Bull Ineffabilis Deus defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as the belief that Mary; mother of Jesus, was from the moment of her conception free from the "stain of original sin." This idea was a part of ecclesiastical tradition, but prior to this time, the church had not officially defined Mary's sinless nature in writing. The publication of this definition, along with published accounts of Marian sightings, contributed to an already heightened awareness of her in a literate, culturally aware public. As a result, Protestant writers who sought to invoke her image interpreted a …

Fields With Dreams: The Distribution Of Farmland With Publicly-Funded Conservation Easements In Pennsylvania, Amy Sue Hill

Masters Theses

Conservation easements have played an increasingly significant role in the American movement to preserve farmland from urban development. Conservation easements are legal instruments that enable a landowner to sell his right to develop his property to an outside party, typically a government entity or a private land conservancy. The distribution of conservation easements used to preserve farmland is highly variable. Conservation easements often are found in regions where productive farmland and intense development pressure collide. Conservation easements are most common in places where both public and private sectors give strong financial and political support for conservation.

This thesis analyzes the …

From The Voice To The Violent Act: Language And Violence In Contemporary Drama, Richard A. Bryan

Doctoral Dissertations

Aleks Sierz coined the phrase "In-Yer-Face Theatre" to categorize a new generation of plays written by a group of upstart playwrights in Britain and America. In addressing these plays, I draw upon recent contributions within the social sciences in order to understand better the interstices of language and violence in this drama. This interdisciplinary approach underscores the social considerations at the heart of these plays. Although frequently criticized for a perceived lack of social consciousness and a seemingly gratuitous use of profanity, prurient sexuality, and graphic violence, these writers in fact continue, and contribute to, a tradition of theater that …

Dismantling The Master’S Schoolhouse: The Rhetoric Of Education In African American Autobiography And Fiction, Miya G. Abbot

Masters Theses

This thesis examines rhetorical understandings of education for African Americans in literature of three important time periods of American history. From the post-Reconstruction South, to Northern cities in the 1950s, and finally to 1990s Los Angeles, this is an examination of how African American authors of fiction and autobiography have presented the relationship between literacy acquisition and identity. Underlying the historical and rhetorical examination is the argument that, for African American students, the virtue of the educational space is dubious. It is at once the gateway to the "American dream" of prosperity, and the venue for the reinforcement of systemic …

The Pressure Model Of Terrorism: A Behavioralist Model For Ethnonational Terrorism In Western Europe, 1945-2000, Ole J. Forsberg

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine which factors affect an ethnonational group's decision to utilize terrorism to obtain their desired outcomes. Current theories have reached an answer, but theoretical underpinnings of those answers are disparate and weak. Thus, in answering this question, a new model of terrorism is necessary - one which spans the four primary levels of analysis. I do this using a weak rational choice model as a cross-level link, and using psychological models as a basis for the individual-level actions.

While the model is not unequivocally and universally supported by the tests, it is able …

Changing Votes Through Changing Minds, Julia Anne Stoll

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Maritime Terrorism In Southeast Asia, Lara E. Kuhnert

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Bodies In The Classroom: Integrating Physical Literacy, Carolina Mancuso

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay, based on research in Masters level classrooms for education students enrolled in a Graduate Literacy Program, addresses issues of mind-body-spirit teaching and learning..

An Investigation Of The Predictive Validity Of Broad And Narrow Personality Traits In Relation To Academic Achievement, Jessica A. Dunsmore

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the ability of broad and narrow personality traits to predict academic achievement over time in adolescence. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 1328 adolescents from an archival data set. Students were in grades 6, 9, and 12 at time one, and measures were assessed over three consecutive annual testing occasions. Results from correlational analyses showed that all Big Five traits predicted academic performance at Time One and Time Two. All Big Five traits except for Openness predicted academic performance at Time Three. Additional correlational analyses demonstrated that the narrow traits of …

Women’S Experiences And Expectations Of The Physician-Patient Relationship, Jill Denise Compton

Doctoral Dissertations

Past research on gender and the medical encounter has tended to focus on gender differences in behavior of both patients and physicians. Less effort has been expended in assessing how gender shapes and structures the experience of the medical encounter. The present study aimed to provide insight into aspects of the medical encounter from the perspectives of women patients themselves and to offer insight into the ways gender emerges and is enacted in the medical encounter.

Seventeen women recruited from a population of undergraduate and graduate students participated in a semi-structured interview involving questions about their experiences with and expectations …

Appointing Stability In An Age Of Crisis: Lord Charles Cornwallis And The British Imperial Revival, 1780-1801, Bradley S. Benefield

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the ideological impetus to the founding of the second British Empire. The loss of the thirteen North American colonies left the British Empire in a state of crisis. Yet, by the early nineteenth century, the British Empire was once again in a position of global dominance. Many historians have theorized over how Britain united to face and overcome this period of crisis. One historian, C.A. Bayly, has argued that British elites rallied behind a progressive conservative ideology, which became the prerequisite to the founding of the second British Empire. To test this …

Playing With Stories: Sporting Narratives And The Deliberation Of Moral Questions, Matthew A. Masucci

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relationship between sporting narratives and morality. More specifically, I investigate how people can draw upon sporting experiences, as expressed in narrative form, to help shape and inform their moral choices. Moreover, I argue that reflecting on sporting experiences in a particular way can have a profoundly valuable impact on our moral choices, thus, helping to improve us morally. In addition, I argue that sporting narratives play a crucial moral role due, in large part, to their pervasiveness and accessibility. Drawing from, and expanding on, the practical tradition of narrative ethics, and …

Southern Normal?: An Exploration Of Integration In A Deep South Town: Brewton, Alabama, 1954-1971, Anna Catherine Mcdonald

Masters Theses

This study was conducted in order to identify possible reasons for the successful integration of Brewton, Alabama’s school system. Unlike many other towns in South Alabama, Brewton chose not to create a private school as an alternative to attending an integrated public facility. Known as “white flight” schools, these private institutions are still a viable factor in the education of Southern children. Although Brewton had the money and the resources to create such a school, it did not. This thesis seeks to understand why.

Two factors are central to approaching Brewton as a topic of research. One is Brewton’s wealthy …

Connecting, Helen Walker, Louise Morgan, Amy Wink, Marcia Nell, Gergana Vitanova, Judy Huddleston

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Louise Morgan—Street Science: An English Teacher’s Introduction to Street Life.

Amy Wink—'In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity'— Albert Einstein

Marcia Nell—The New Partnership

Gergana Vitanova—Negotiating an Identity in Graduate School as a Second Language Speaker.

Judy Huddleston—A Cat in the Sun: Reflections on Teaching.

Secrets In Common: Intellectual Foundations Of The Lodge That Found Billet In The Dens And Klaverns, Damien Borg

Masters Theses

Secrets in Common is an anthropological history that undertakes to explain the similarities of membership and ideology between the Freemasons and two formations of the Ku Klux Klan. The work is divided into seven sections. It was compiled from both extant, which was of principle significance, and secondary printed material. After many hours of reading and countless attempts at “understanding,” three short ethnographic narratives were compiled: they makeup the central axis of the material. The first narrative describes the Freemasons, while the second two are on the “Reconstruction Klan” and the “Klan of the ‘20’s,” henceforth referred to as Kuklux …

Searching For America: The Development Of The Immigrant Narrative Across Jewish, African, Cuban, And Korean American Literature, Amanda Maree Lawrence

Doctoral Dissertations

Searching for America: The Development of the Immigrant Narrative across Jewish, African, Cuban, and Korean American Literature is a longitudinal study that traces and accounts for the development of immigrant literature within specific ethnic groups, focusing on how different generations rewrite the immigrant narrative of their own cultures. Considering multiple texts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Jewish, African, Cuban, and Korean American authors, I examine the changing relationship between language or literary form and identity politics for each group. In addition to exploring individual patterns of development, I suggest ways in which these very different ethnic texts speak …

A Critique Of The Disease Model Of Addiction, Annette Mary Mendola

Doctoral Dissertations

While there is widespread disagreement as to just what addiction is, the two most popular models are the moral model (i.e., addiction is a moral failing) and the disease model (i.e., addiction is a kind of disease). Both of these models have serious problems, for theory and for practice. Furthermore, since competing models for addiction have different implications for treatment, law, social norms, and so on, it is important to find a single model for addiction that works in every arena. We need an account of addiction that avoids the problems of the disease models and the moral models. That …

Stimulus, Fall/Winter 2003, Ut College Of Social Work

Stimulus Alumni Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Dean Rusk : Southern Statesman, Mark Kenneth Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a biographically informed study of Dean Rusk, one of the most important American policy officials in the twentieth century. As an assistant secretary of state under President Truman and as secretary of state during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Rusk was practitioner of an ideology centered on principles of honor, credibility, fidelity, democracy, and the sanctity of national sovereignty. Dean Rusk: Southern Statesman is significant because it combines components of the methodologies of social and cultural history with the primary source material of military/ diplomatic studies to produce an original analysis of the development of Rusk's worldview …

Adventures Of An 'Itinerant Institutor' : The Life And Philanthropy Of Thomas Bernard, Jonathan Allen Fowler

Doctoral Dissertations

Sir Thomas Bernard founded, directed, or subscribed to more than twenty associated charities. His most famous brainchild, the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, became a national clearance house for charitable plans, public health measures, and employment or educational schemes from all over Britain. Simultaneously Bernard, as a Buckinghamshire magistrate, instituted administrative changes to foster independence and moral restraint among relief recipients. On a few issues, including vaccination and fever hospitals, Bernard appealed directly to parliamentary for financial support; or, as with the excise on salt, he spearheaded a campaign for a parliamentary repeal. This study examines Bernard’s …