Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Hip-Hop Culture On Freshman Student Identity, David Shanks

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation is to explore the impact that hip-hop has on the identity of freshman students at Rowan University during the spring 2017 semester. The survey questions were geared toward answering the primary focus. The survey has 34 items, the first five questions were used to collect demographic information from the students including Gender, GPA, Ethnicity, Class rank, and Age. The next 29 questions divided into three factor groupings, these groups were used to investigate the identity of select freshman, what students believe about their knowledge of hip-hop culture, how committed these students are to hip-hop culture, …

"La Reyna Es El Rey": Expressions Of Gender Identity By Female Mariachis In The Southwest, Erika J. Soveranes

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1990s, the popularity of all-female mariachis has grown in the United States. These ensembles push the boundaries, both socially and stylistically, of a genre which has traditionally disregarded female participation. In this thesis, I study two all-female mariachi groups in the Southwest in which I have participated: Mariachi Buenaventura from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Mariachi Margaritas from Brownsville, Texas. These two groups struggle to establish their reputation and aspire towards equal recognition to their male counterparts on the basis of musicality. Based on musical analysis and ethnographic reflections, I argue that the mariachi tradition embodies patriarchal values …

Food And Negotiation Of Identity Among The Russian Immigrant Community Of Brighton Beach, Elena Starkova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the construction of ethnic identity among Russian immigrants in New York, by examining how it has been negotiated and articulated through foods, including traditional and non-native foods as a vehicle for their shifting identities and for reaffirming their position and participation in mainstream American society.

The Association Between Ego Identity Status And Social Media Use, Michael E. Alejandro

Theses and Dissertations

With the current rise in the use of social media across different societies and groups, the question arises as to how social media use relates to psychosocial development, or more specifically, ego identity status. Social media platforms may serve as tools for self-expression and it is through its use that would allow for an individual’s identity exploration characteristic of various ego identity statuses. The purpose of the current study was to examine how current ego identity status may predict integration of social media in individuals’ daily lives, providing a better understanding of how each of the four statuses differ based …

Identity, Power, And Conflict In Preschool Teaching Teams, Esther Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the common occurrence of teaming in preschool classrooms, very little research has explored the experiences of teachers working in such a context. Due to a high turnover of preschool teachers and a recent change in the educational requirements of lead teachers in Head Start, it is anticipated that the number of young and inexperienced lead teachers is likely to increase. The purpose of this case study research is to illuminate the teaming relationships between young, recently qualified lead teachers and their assistants working together within one classroom. Over the course of a school year, interviews and observations were conducted …

Open Mic: A Documentary Film Exploring Humorous Narratives, Ryan T. Cashman

Theses and Dissertations

This documentary investigates hardship and identity through humor. The film shadows the lives of three individuals who are all going through a watershed experience with their identities ranging from changes in their family dynamics, gender, or environment. Participants will be writing and performing a stand-up routine in front of a live audience that focuses on a story about their identity. The film underscores how, or if, the sender’s use of humor helps them cope or achieve closure. The film does not explore the audience’s reaction to humor. Using in-depth interviews with each comic, the film centers around the sender, highlighting …

Ghost Water Exhibition, Michael G. Sharp

Theses and Dissertations

The Ghost Water exhibition of artworks by Michael Sharp was comprised of four main works titled: 30 x 60 Minute Grid Series, Suspension, History/Prehistory, and Lake Bonneville Remnants. The artwork was created as a reaction to the land that once held the prehistoric Lake Bonneville and to its current remnant Great Salt Lake. The work explores the dialogue between absence and presence.

Mythology Of The Angry Black Man: An Analysis Of Cornelius Eady’S Brutal Imagination As A Rhetorical Counter-Narrative, Junior Ocasio

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Cornelius Eady’s book of poetry, Brutal Imagination, rhetorically serves as a counter-narrative to the fictional construction of Black characters blamed for committing crimes. Brutal Imagination gives voice to Mr. Zero, Eady’s name for the fictional character Susan Smith created in 1994, whom Smith blamed for kidnapping her children. Thus, by using a counter-narrative lens, this thesis analyzes how fictional creations can alter the socially constructed identity of the “angry” Black man.

Identity And Its Political Manipulation In Syria, Nada Yasser Sharkawy

Theses and Dissertations

This research takes a social constructivist approach in order to analyze how identity is used as a political tool, leading to the current civil war in Syria. Identity plays a great role in the political scene in Syria ever since the French Mandate, in which the state was broken into an ethnofederal system. Subsequently the French employed a divide and conquer tactic in order to prevent the unity of Syria therefore making it easier to establish control. Later on, after multiple coups, Hafiz Al-Assad rose to power along with a select group of trusted individuals from his family, tribe, and …

The Effects Of Power On The Processing Of Identity Threat, Matthew Facciani

Theses and Dissertations

Identity theory provides a useful foundation for understanding how social factors influence the acceptance of evidence. This is because identity theory provides a framework of how we process information from other people depending on what social positions we occupy. The current study explored how the perception of power impacts the processing of an identity threat with college student participants (N=217). High power was predicted to decrease acceptance of identity-threatening information, and low power was predicted to increase acceptance of identity-threatening information. However, the study yielded non-significant effects of power on the acceptance of identity-threatening information. Results did show that individuals …

Narrating Pain And Freedom: Place And Identity In Modern Syrian Poetry (1970s-1990s), Manar Shabouk

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines poetry of Daʿd Ḥadād, Sanieh Ṣālḥ, and Ryāḍ Ṣālḥ al- Ḥsīn and the dominant role of place in their poetry. My dissertation is specifically interested in nonconformist modern Syrian poetry, especially women’s poetry and poetry focused on place and space. I approach my analysis from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective and hence will draw on theoretical frameworks from Arabic studies, poetry discourse, and theory of place. Drawing on these different critical frameworks, my research analyzes representations of modern Syrian poetry with a focus on the writing of women and the poetry of nonconformity in its expression of …

Exploring The Professional Identity Of Examplar Novice High School Counselors, Kimberly A. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study investigated how exemplar novice high school counselors described the development of their professional identities. Through interviewing high school counselors who have been practicing between 1 to 5 years, experiences and themes emerged to understand the process of how exemplar novice high school counselors developed a professional identity. Through the themes, researchers will analyze whether novice high school counselors benefited from certain courses as trainees, current job experiences and professional involvement in developing their professional identities.

One In Eight: Deciding To Pursue A College-Going Possible Self In A High-Poverty High School, David B. Naff

Theses and Dissertations

There is considerable research evidence suggesting that low-income, racial minority students value education and aspire for postsecondary educational attainment (Bloom, 2007; Destin & Oyserman, 2009; Wigfield & Eccles, 2002). However, their performance in school often does not align with those values and ambitions, as these students tend to underachieve in comparison with their higher-income, non-minority peers (Reardon, 2011), with particular gaps found in those attending schools of concentrated poverty (Rowan, 2011). This gap between educational ambition and attainment suggests that the experience of living and going to school in a high-poverty context could be related to the motivational processes driving …

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Women Self Actualization: A Narrative Of A Performative Gender Constitution, Hala A. Gabr

Theses and Dissertations

In a traditional Middle Eastern society, men and women have been confined within society’s gender definitions. Those imposed social constructs condition men differently from women by dictating expected behaviors, establishing a hierarchy of gender positioning and enforcing definitions that limit abilities and potential.

Based on postmodernist philosopher, feminist and social theorist, Simone de Beauvoir and postmodernist American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, gender is not an inborn role, but rather created through stylized repetition of acts informed by society, named performative acts. For de Beauvoir and Butler, gender can never be a stable identity (Butler 1988).

Informed by Butler’s …