Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploratory Study Of The Career Mobility Patterns Of African American Women Working In Public Parks And Recreation Agencies, Chermaine Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

African American (AA) women are among the most underrepresented and under-researched groups in the parks and recreation profession. The purpose of this study is to explore the career mobility patterns of AA women currently working in public parks and recreation agencies. To achieve this purpose, the study examines the career mobility patterns of 169 AA women over a five-year period. The study also examines their ascent into executive leadership positions in their profession. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What job positions and classifications are held by a sample of AA women currently working in public parks and …

Domestic Shakespeares In The Antebellum United States, Daniel G. Lauby

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how early nineteenth-century female novelists developed a new mode of adapting Shakespeare, what I am calling “domestic Shakespeares,” that cite, reference, and rearrange plays based on women’s experiences in and of the home. I focus on popular women authors whose novels appeared between 1827 and 1862, a time when identity was especially apparent in the geographical formation of the United States. These women novelists used allusions to and adaptations of Shakespeare in their works to express their frustrations with conventional paradigms of womanhood and related disciplinary systems, such as coverture, that limited women’s citizenship. “Domestic Shakespeares,” I …

White Womanhood: Finding Oppositional Epistemologies And Community At The Intersection Of Whiteness And Womanhood, Hannah Joy Fischer

Doctoral Dissertations

White women continue to contribute to the reproduction and maintenance of White supremacy even when they attempt to pursue antiracism. To better understand their antiracist agency, this study analyzed White women’s experiences and comprehension of White womanhood. Using phenomenology and critical autoethnography, this qualitative study invited six self-proclaimed antiracist White women to participate in individual interviews, attend two focus groups, and reflect on five guided prompts on White womanhood and antiracist action. The study revealed antiracist White women’s feelings of responsibility and lack of perceived agency for antiracist action. Participants demonstrated attempts to disengage from whiteness while also expressing desires …

Embodiment And Gendered Subjectivity In Ukrainian Women’S Film, Poetry, And Prose During Perestroika (1985-1991), Sandra J. Russell

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I look to Ukrainian women’s literary and filmic contributions in the final Soviet years of perestroika to recontextualize and reconsider feminist and gendered epistemologies in Eastern Europe. I view the last Soviet Ukrainian filmmakers, writers, and artists as groundbreaking in their conceptualization a new, more “liberal” vision of nation, especially through their increasingly open and subversive critiques of the Soviet state. I locate perestroika as a powerful moment in Ukraine’s histories of resistance to the weaponization of colonialist and imperialist mythologies, past and present. For women in particular, the stakes of this shifting articulation of nation became …

Quality Of Life For Women With Chronic Lyme Disease: A Socioeconomic Investigation, Dale M. Jones

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a mixed methods investigation of how chronic Lyme disease, including Lyme-like diseases and co-infections, affects the quality of life of women who have chronic Lyme. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used during three phases of research: a 91-question survey instrument followed by focus group discussions and written narratives. The research considered the socioeconomic impact on quality of life in five areas: obtaining a diagnosis, relationships and personal support systems, struggles with the medical system, the ability to work, and access to treatment. There were 500 responses to the survey, of which 373 were analyzed; 11 participants in …

New Ways Of Being And Knowing: Women Ph.D. Students Exploring Embodiment Through Feminist Phenomenological Photovoice, Anna Fox Reilly

Doctoral Dissertations

Being a Ph.D. student is a privilege in many ways, and it is not easy. Mind-body dualist patterns of thought and behavior within academia ignore the embodied experiences of being a woman Ph.D. student. Mental health, sexual harassment, family planning, and social relationships are among the challenges that women are often expected to handle on their own or are ignored altogether. With 20 women Ph.D. student participants, this feminist phenomenological photovoice project answers the questions: For those who self-identify as women, what is the essence of the embodied Ph.D. experience? To what extent does the experience of being in a …

“In The Skin I’M In…I Represent A Different Version Of What Help Looks Like:” Black Women Sport Psychology Professional’S Experiences In Applied Sport Psychology, Sharon R. Couch

Doctoral Dissertations

Black Feminist Applied Sport Psychology (BFASP) is a culturally inclusive theoretical framework for centering Black women’s experiences in applied sport psychology (Carter et al., 2020; Couch et al., 2022). For the past two decades, (White) Feminist applied sport psychology professionals (FASPPs) described the experiences of Black women as unique but were overlooked in research and participant pools due to the prioritization of White women's and Black male sport experiences. (Carter & Davila, 2017; Carter & Prewitt-White, 2014; Gill, 2020; Hyman et al., 2021). The purpose of this study was to explore the life and work experiences of BASPPs (i.e., faculty, …

¿Tú Qué Sabes?: Latina Doctoral Women Disrupting And Resisting Dominant Knowledge, Sendy Ramos Madsen

Doctoral Dissertations

Education environments have systematically excluded, silenced, and erroneously spoken on behalf of Women of Color. Linear forms of scholarship and research practices propagate the dominant perspective and fail to address systems of oppression that result in epistemic suppression and academic hostility towards brown minds. Historically, Latina women have not been seen as creators of knowledge, and their access to educational spaces has been restricted. According to census projections, in 2036, Latinas/os will account for the largest minority group in the United States and one-third of the American educational system. Therefore, academic spaces must establish practices to include Latina women as …

Bitten By The Demon Of Cinema: An Examination Of Women-Made Horror, Erica Tortolani

Doctoral Dissertations

Moving away from a discussion of horror films directed by men, “Bitten by the Demon of Cinema” those films—and, where appropriate, works across media, like on television, the Internet, and in the visual arts—created by women. As I explore in this dissertation, women-made horror has narrative, thematic, and stylistic qualities that borrow from the genre at large but are then transformed into a class of films all of their own. While seemingly diverse, they share enough commonalities to constitute a new mode of filmmaking altogether. The films and filmmakers that I have chosen in this dissertation are cases in point …

The Career Experience Of Women In Senior-Level Leadership Positions Within Power 5 Intercollegiate Athletic Departments: A Phenomenological Study, Lynsey Miller

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the career experiences of women in senior-level leadership positions within Power 5 intercollegiate athletic departments. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to collect data from eight senior-level female administrators working in Power 5 athletic departments. Four themes emerged from data analysis, including pathway to senior-level leadership, mentorship and support, stereotypes, and intersectional constraints. This research adds to the body of existing literature by further addressing the experiences of underrepresented groups within intercollegiate athletics administration, particularly within the Power 5 conferences. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for the career experiences of women …

“We Feminine Foresters”: Women, Conservation, And The Usda Forest Service, 1850-1970, Rachel D. Kline

Doctoral Dissertations

The traditional narrative of the Forest Service places the mythic “two-fisted” male ranger as the focus of its history. The reality is that without women he would not have gotten the job done. Women’s work as advocates, foresters, rangers’ wives, clerks, information and education specialists, scientific researchers, and lookouts reveals that although women were excluded from the male domain of forestry, they created a distinct female tradition within the Forest Service—what one called a “feminine forestry” that proved without women, the Forest Service would not have achieved its accomplishments or growth throughout the twentieth century. Throughout their work, women spread …

Prostitutes, Temporary Wives, And Motrebs: A Comparative Study Of Sex Work In Iranian Film And Fiction From The Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) To The Islamic Revolution (1979), Maryam Zehtabi Sabeti Moqaddam

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation titled “Prostitutes, Temporary Wives, and Motrebs: A Comparative Study of Sex Work in Iranian Film and Fiction from Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) to the Islamic Revolution (1979)” brings together the web of images and narratives in sociocultural and historical texts and films that create and maintain the identity of sex workers as articles of mass consumption and sustain dominant practices and policies. By studying how these women, their body, and their sexuality are perceived, shown, and regulated in art and literature—which are ciphers of the society at large—my research exposes the tightly knit relationship between patriarchy, capitalism, and …

Women In Science, Technology, Engineering And Mathematics (Stem): Pre-College And College Factors Of Success, Jada Russell

Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars have reported that the competitiveness and innovation of the United States’ workforce in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics [STEM] fields are critical to maintaining our nation’s security and economic edge (Chen, 2009; Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Espinosa, 2011). Indeed, STEM is one of the fastest growing fields in the employment industry, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (Langdon, et. al, 2011), and between 2008 and 2018, the number of STEM jobs is expected to increase 17%. Fostering learning pathways for all individuals interested in pursuing careers and education in STEM disciplines is necessary for us to meet the …

The Lived Resettlement Experience For Single Refugee Mothers From The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Lauren Michelle Mefford

Doctoral Dissertations

At least 72% of the 50,000 Congolese refugees resettled in the USA in the last 5 years are women and children. Many are single refugee mothers (SRM) disadvantaged by obstacles (i.e., childcare) that hinder them from becoming self-sufficient within the required timeframe post-resettlement. Published research on resettlement has focused general challenges, but an understanding of the unique needs and perspectives of SRMs is lacking. This phenomenological, qualitative study provides insight into the lived resettlement experience for SRMs from the Democratic of Congo (DRC). Participants (n=7) were recruited from a refugee resettlement agency in East Tennessee and partook in open-ended, unstructured …

Postkoloniale Solidarität: Alltagsleben Von Ddr-Bürgern In Mosambik, 1979-1990, Katrin Bahr

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation examines the everyday life and work of development workers[1] and their families sent by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to Mozambique between 1979 and 1990. I investigate the issues of state and individual solidarity and the interactions of Germans and Mozambicans within the development projects. Since the GDR did not see itself as a colonial power or an heir to Germany's colonial past, it acquitted itself of the charge of being an exploitative imperialist in its foreign policy. From its perspective, it stood side by side in “solidarity” (Solidarität) with its “brother states” (Bruderstaaten) …

Affective Histories Of Southern Trauma: Shame, Healing, And Vulnerability In Us Southern Women’S Writing, 1975–2006, Faune Albert

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the affective impacts of historical trauma around slavery and segregation in the US South, arguing for the importance of understanding US Southern history through the ways in which it has lived and continues to live in and on the bodies of Southerners marked by race and gender and class and within emotional life in the South. The texts in this study—Gayl Jones’ Corregidora (1975), Dorothy Allison’s Trash (1988), Ellen Gilchrist’s Net of Jewels (1992), and Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard (2006)—engage the affective impacts of intergenerational and insidious trauma through portrayals of Southern women struggling to give voice …

Women’S Experiences Of Disability And Community-Based Rehabilitation In Sri Lanka, Carmen R. Britton

Doctoral Dissertations

The majority of people with disability (PWD) live in the global South. Over the last four decades, community-based rehabilitation (CBR) programs have dominated the way development programs operate and intercede in the lives of PWD, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This research uses participant observation and in-depth interviews to gather women’s experiences of disablement and CBR in Sri Lanka. Major findings detail ways CBR programs fail to address larger social inequities, specifically centered around ableism and sexism, and how these barriers are embedded in societies. Thus, these programs continue to target rehabilitation efforts at the level of the individual, …

Social Factors That Exacerbate Features Of Borderline Personality Disorder In Young Adult Women Between 25 And 35 Years Of Age Living In The Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico, Erika M. Carrasquillo

Doctoral Dissertations

The high prevalence of BPD hospitalizations, unsuccessful treatments, poor social awareness, suicide attempts and complete suicides were motivating forces for this research study. The aim was to uncover pertinent social factors that exacerbate BPD in the lives of individuals with this affliction and therefore find ways to combat this disease. Since most of the individuals affected by this disease are female, the present research was focused on uncovering factors that increased the likelihood of BPD factors in women between the ages of 25-35 years. Borderline personality disorder is often viewed as difficult to treat. However, recent research shows that BPD …

Beyond Access: Sense Of Belonging Of Black/African American Women Writing To Complete The Ph.D, Sabrina Durand

Doctoral Dissertations

Success in the doctoral context has traditionally been measured by persistence. However, solely equating doctoral persistence with success overlooks salient academic experiences that may address how to assist different students in successfully negotiating and navigating the emotionally complex and complicated terrain of graduate school (Gardner, 2009). Sense of Belonging provides an expanded lens through which to view student success in the doctoral context. This qualitative study explores Black/African American women doctoral student’s perceptions of their Sense of Belonging and how it impacts their academic experience during the dissertation phase. A narrative approach using semi structured interviews was used. Data collection …

Alternative Biographies: (Re)Telling Feminine (Hi)Stories In Selected 20th-Century Texts By Québécois Women Writers, Jessica Mcbride

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to examine the tendency on the part of several québécois women authors from the 20^th century to create alternative feminine biographies for forgotten, undervalued, or misrepresented women from the past. Given the complex relationship the Québécois have with their provincial history, and the central role chauvinistic representations of women and the “Québec national text” play in safeguarding the québécois cultural identity, contemporary women writers from Québec are singularly poised to resurrect, recreate, revive, and rewrite the feminine historical experience into the traditional discourse of History. From Québec’s most famous woman writer, Anne Hébert, …

Beyond The Boundaries Of Childhood: Northern African American Children's Cultural And Political Resistance, 1780-1861, Crystal L. Webster

Doctoral Dissertations

Notions of childhood as a distinct developmental period of life were concretized during the nineteenth century. Features of children’s lives including innocence, play, and exclusion from labor became markers of ideal childhoods as part of the racialized modernization of childhood. This dissertation uncovers the ways in which modern constructions of childhood attempted to subjugate northern African American children throughout the nineteenth century and highlights the means by which black children and conceptualizations of black childhood became agents and sites of resistance. In doing so, it demonstrates both how African American children experienced age-based forms of subjugation as well as their …

Para Donde Miran Los Ojos: Confluencias Entre Locura, (Des)Identidad Y Violencia En La Obra De João Guimarães Rosa, Silvina Ocampo Y Luis Martín-Santos, Giseli C. Tordin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies the representation of madness in the literary works of three twentieth-century authors, namely, João Guimarães Rosa (from Brazil), Silvina Ocampo (from Argentina), and Luis Martín-Santos (from Spain). The first chapter argues that madness in Ocampo’s “El castigo”, Rosa’s “Buriti”, and Martín-Santos, Tiempo de silencio, reveals a series of conflicts between tradition and modernity, rather than the alleged symptoms of an individual suffering from a mental illness. After comparing the three works, it is evident that the decisions of their characters reproduce certain values idealized by authoritarian cultures. The second chapter discusses Rosa’s “Substância”, Ocampo’s “La casa …

We Are Roses From Our Mothers' Gardens: Black Feminist Visuality In African American Women's Art, Kelli Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT WE ARE ROSES FROM OUR MOTHERS’ GARDENS: BLACK FEMINIST VISUALITY IN AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S ART MAY 2017 KELLI MORGAN, B.A., WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERISTY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Manisha Sinha We Are Roses From Our Mothers' Gardens posits that in differing historical periods African American women visual artists employed various media and create from individual political thoughts, intellectual views, and aesthetic interests to emphasize the innate unification of a Black woman’s race, gender, sexuality, class, and selfhood and how this multifaceted dynamic of Black women’s identity and material reality produces a …

The Role Of Mentoring For Women In Upper Management In The National Basketball Association (Nba), Manuela Picariello

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite years of progress by women in the workforce, climbing the corporate ladder is still a very daunting task for most women (Eagly & Carli, 2007; Evans, 2010; McKinsey Report, 2013), and occupational segregation still exists (Davidson & Burke, 2011). Research studies have reported that mentoring in general is critical to upward mobility (Allen, Eby, O’Brien, & Lentz, 2008; Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004; Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng, & DuBois, 2008). To date there has not been a study with a focus on mentoring and female executives in professional sport. In the 2014 Racial and Gender Report Card …

An Exploration Of Us Ncaa Division I (Di) Female Soccer Players’ Perceptions Regarding Morality In Sport, Terilyn Chiemi Shigeno

Doctoral Dissertations

To date, little research exists with regard to how athletes think about morality within sport (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1984, 1986; Kavussanu, 2007, 2008; Shields & Bredemeier, 1995; Weiss, 1987), and even less exists which explores the concepts of bracketed morality or game reasoning within sport contexts (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1984, 1986; Kavussanu, Boardley, Sager, & Ring, 2013. The same is true for research related to sport moral identity (e.g., Bredemeier & Shields, 1984, 1986; Kavussanu, 2007, 2008; Kavussanu, Willoughby, & Ring, 2012; Sage & Kavussanu, 2010; Sage, Kavussuanu, & Duda, 2006; Shields & Bredemeier, 1995; Weiss, 1987) …

More Than A Silhouette: African American Women’S Graduate Student Experience, Bridget Holly Love

Doctoral Dissertations

African American women have been silhouetted. They have been reduced to a one dimensional version of themselves and defined by societies White – male hegemonic background. Currently, limited research exists on the experiences of African American (AA) women graduate students from an Afrocentric perspective. Despite the increase enrollment of AA women in higher education, barriers to degree completion still persist as evidenced by the lower rates of graduation. The lack of AA women in higher education demonstrates that the literature holds a minority position not unlike that of AA women in society. Subsequently, the accomplishments, challenges and overall experiences of …

Self-Care Behaviors Of Women Living With Heart Failure: A Mixed Methods Study, Susan Bartos

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-care is paramount to the successful management of heart failure. Although recent trends in heart failure have shown a decline in hospitalizations and emergency room visits, observational unit admissions related to heart failure exacerbations continue to rise (Albert, 2016). Although nearly half (47%) of the heart failure population is female women are historically under-represented in heart failure research that guide best practice recommendations (Pressler, 2016). Therefore, the primary aim of this mixed methods study was to identify differences in women who demonstrate an adequate heart failure self-care maintenance (score >70) behaviors as compared to women who score inadequately (score < 69) as measured by the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) version 6.2. Quantitative data revealed a significant, parabolic relationship between heart failure self-care maintenance and self-care confidence scores. Qualitative analysis suggested that assuming an active or passive role in heart failure self-care plays an important role in women’s heart failure self-care maintenance. Mixed methods analysis revealed high heart failure self-care confidence levels may not reflect an adequate level of heart failure self-care maintenance behaviors. Further research is required to expand on the factors that were found to both facilitate and impede heart failure self-care and to continue to improve health outcomes for women with heart failure.

“If There Are Men Who Are Afraid To Die, There Are Women Who Are Not”: African American Women's Civil Rights Leadership In Boston, 1920-1975., Julie De Chantal

Doctoral Dissertations

Since the 1980s, narratives surrounding the Boston Busing Crisis focus on South Boston white working-class’s reaction to Judge Arthur W. Garrity's forced desegregation order of 1974. Yet, by analyzing the crises from such narrow perspective, the narratives leave out half of the story. This dissertation challenges these narratives by situating the busing crisis as the culmination of more than half a century of grassroots activism led by Black working-class mothers. By taking action at the neighborhood and the city levels, these mothers succeeded where the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People and the Urban League had failed. …

Stress, Coping, And Well Being Of African American College Women: A Grounded Theory Study, Christine R. Hannon

Doctoral Dissertations

African American women are a rapidly growing population on college campuses. Though enrollment trends suggest an increase in African American women’s pursuit of educational attainment, they face unique challenges and obstacles (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Researchers have noted that stressful life events have detrimental effects on the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of college students (Greer & Brown, 2011; Reynolds, Sneva, & Beehler, 2010; Hall et al., 2006; Larson, 2006; Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Nonis et al., 1998; Shapiro et al., 1998; Cohen & Herbert, 1996; Van Eck et al., 1996). Research focused on the unique challenges of …

“/Entee Min Faine/? [Where Are You From?]": The Rhetoric Of Nationality Of Muslim Women In The American Southeast, Bushra Mohammad Malaibari

Doctoral Dissertations

Nationality is a powerful modern concept. It allows people legal and political rights, but nationality is also rooted in our language. Nationality is essential to designate populations together as an entity. But in America, where individualism is essential, nationality can be expressed in various ways. Historically, there is little research done on the construction of nationality from a rhetorical lens. This project aims to investigate that very issue. Moreover, the sampled population was Muslim women in the American Southeast to rarify and observe a marginalized group. The primary research question of this project is, “How do Muslim women articulate their …