Digital Commons Network^™

Tracking Childhood Vaccination Trends By Race: Analyzing Mmr-Only, Dtap-Only, And Varicella-Only Vaccine Coverage Rates From 2016-2022, Victoria Gallagher

Public Health Capstone Projects

Declining vaccination rates due to factors like hesitancy and access issues during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, have spurred outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles and pertussis. This capstone analyzes vaccination coverage for MMR-only, DTaP-only, and Varicella-only shots among children from 2016 to 2022, focusing on racial disparities. Data from the National Immunization Surveys (NIS) informed the analysis, encompassing 118,323 children. Odds ratios from a multivariable logistic regression were used to perform this analysis, and statistical significance was determined using a 95% confidence interval (CI). Black children had lower odds of MMR and Varicella vaccination compared to White children …

Bless Your Heart: A Deconstruction Of Southern Hostility Disguised As Southern Hospitality And Its Effects On Black Identity In “Blues For Mister Charlie” And The Vanishing Half, Sterling S. Neill

English Theses

Southern hospitality, whether real or perceived, is a cultural stereotype tied to the Southern region of the United States. Studies on Southern hospitality are growing, possibly due to the recent surge of anti-Black legislation including disbandment of Affirmative Action, critical race theory, and women and gender studies in schools. As more racist and sexist doctrine is dispersed throughout America, it is imperative to evaluate false narratives, such as Southern hospitality, that perpetuate and reinforce structural discrimination, which historical literary works can function to counter. This thesis examines Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin and The Vanishing Half by Brit …

Mixed Race Masculinity In 2020 And Beyond, Christina M. Wan

Sociology Dissertations

Studies that center mixed-race identity and the experiences of mixed-race people do not often focus exclusively on mixed-race men. Simply put, more scholarship examines mixed race femininity than mixed race masculinity (strmic-pawl 2023). This project highlights the experiences of 17 mixed-race men, focusing on answers to the research question: “How are mixed-race men navigating multiple racial identities?” This qualitative dissertation is a journey into the lived experiences of mixed-race men at the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, culture, and more. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s ([1987]2012) conceptualization of the borderlands, this project tells the stories of those who are situated at …

Revolution And Counterrevolution In Georgia, 1865-1870: Charles Hopkins, Aaron Bradley, And The Union Leagues, Robert Braxton

History Theses

At the end of the Civil War, the struggles between working people and the capitalist class moved to the center of US politics. In Georgia, freedmen fought for an agrarian revolution—forty acres and a mule—and rejected “free labor.” Poor and yeomen whites demanded relief from oppressive debt. When Radical Reconstruction began, masses of working people awoke to political life. Tens of thousands of freedmen and poor whites joined Union Leagues. Freedmen confronted planters in the fields and rebel officials in the streets and prepared militarily to seize their forty acres. With property rights under threat, Republicans gave the army the …

Underreported Yet Overcrowded: Negligent Deaths And Prison Overcrowding In The Context Of Missing Prison Data In The United States, Chloe Sellers

Sociology Theses

With the highest incarceration rate in the world, the inability to provide adequate health care and facilities in United States prisons is paramount, especially given unequal incarceration rates by race. This study analyzes 1998 and 1999 National Prisoner Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice. Using the context of federal funding incentives and truth-in-sentencing laws, which drastically increased sentence lengths and overcrowding, this study explores the relationship between overcrowding and unnatural deaths among incarcerated populations at the state-level. The inability of United States prisons to address health and safety needs and the overwhelming lack of reporting and preventable deaths among …

Racial Residential Segregation And Covid-19 Mortality, Suresh Nath Neupane

Geosciences Theses

Studies have shown that the social and physical environments are strong predictors of the health of the urban population. This study investigates if racial residential segregation has any impact on the poor health outcome of residents in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a cross-sectional study with 8, 668, 744 observations at the individual level. The hierarchical logistic regression conducted to investigate the association between race and residential segregation with COVID-19 mortality showed that a one unit increase in segregation is associated with a 1 % increase in mortality. Furthermore, people from Black and Asian ethnic communities were more …

Factors Impacting Vaccine Uptake, Safety, And Efficacy Concerns Among Black And White Adults Previously Infected With Covid-19: A Survey-Based Study, Klea Troka

Public Health Theses

BACKGROUND: Despite COVID-19 disproportionality impacting Black communities, vaccine hesitancy may be higher in this group owing to longstanding and enduring systemic racism. In this study, we determined whether Black (vs White) adults within a Georgia (GA) integrated healthcare system, previously infected with COVID-19, were more or less likely to report vaccine hesitancy, report concerns about vaccine safety, and efficacy. We also explored how factors like social determinants of health and hardships faced during the COVID-19 pandemic can affect the impact race has on vaccine outcomes (uptake, safety concerns, efficacy concerns).

METHODS: We invited all adult members age ≥18 years at …

Diverse Backgrounds And Policing, Maya I. Wilson

AYSPS Masters Theses

In recent years, high-profile cases of police violence have garnered national debate around the future of policing and how it will address racial/ethnic bias. Current police recruiting campaigns target diversity, hiring racially and ethnically diverse officers, as a solution to the ongoing tensions between officers and the ethnically/racially diverse communities they serve. Consequently, bias is present in all Americans, as race has culturally constructed American society. This research questions the reliability of an officer's racial/ethnic status as catalysts of change for biases present in police organizations and police practices. More so, this research prompts using diverse experiences from childhood and …

Black And Foreign: Haitian Immigrant Identities And Well-Being In America, Mollie Innocent-Cupid

Sociology Dissertations

Black Immigrants who come from Black majority nations must face a unique assimilation to the United States’ racial hierarchy, which places them at the bottom as a racial minority. While theoretical models address the double-consciousness of being a Black American, racial identity models fail to address the identity negotiations of this “invisible immigrant” (Bryce-Laborte 1972) minority group. Black Immigrants experience a deterioration in mental health as they increase their exposure to American society. This trend continues with each subsequent generation, causing second and third generations to display significantly poorer health than Non-Black immigrants.

Haitian Immigrants, who are considered one of …

Adopting Home Language And Multimodality In Composition Courses, Mack Curry

English Dissertations

Over the years, language has been a major issue in teaching composition courses, specifically when discussing African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Standard English (SE). Concepts such as Students Right to their Own Language (SRTOL), culturally relevant pedagogy, and code-switching have been introduced as ways to be more receptive to home language in the classroom. However, many students still lack feeling confidence to expressing themselves in their natural voices. I conducted this study to examine and tests how well AAVE, SE, code-meshing, and multimodality work together to help students better understand linguistic and rhetorical principles. This study found that teacher …

Relationships To Alcohol Among Black Queer Women And Non-Binary People, Brittany Jean Taylor

Sociology Dissertations

Black queer experiences with alcohol use are largely still underrepresented in the sociological study of substance use. Available research indicates Black/African-American queer women are drinking at higher prevalence rates than white queer women. However, little is known about the relationships Black/African-American queer women (and non-binary AFAB people) form and maintain with alcohol. Even less is known about how relationships are formed and maintained over time. This dissertation attempts to center the relationships that Black/African-American queer women and non-binary people have with alcohol through a conceptual model that bridges anti-racist, queer, and medical sociology theoretical frameworks. Eighteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews were …

The Differential Incidence Of Gestational Hypertension Among Georgia Counties, Douglas Hoffmann

Public Health Theses

ABSTRACT

The Differential Incidence of Gestational Hypertension Among Georgia Counties

Douglas G. Hoffmann, MD

October 31, 2019

INTRODUCTION: Gestational hypertension is responsible for a significant number of maternal mortality cases. It is hypothesized that county-level incidence differences of gestational hypertension in Georgia are related to county demographic or environmental characteristics and disease risk.

AIM: This study aims to determine factors related to differential incidence rates of gestational hypertension in Georgia.

METHODS: Data was obtained from the Georgia Department of Public Health and publicly available sources for the years 2013-2017. Gestational hypertension clusters were identified using GeoDa software. Contextual continuous variables …

Marxism, Racism, & Capitalism: A Critical Examination Of Nancy Fraser, Joseph Murphy

Philosophy Theses

An ongoing point of contention within political philosophy—particularly among those on the Left—is to what extent, if at all, Marxist theory is useful in addressing certain forms of oppression found under capitalism, such as racist oppression. Leftist critics of orthodox Marxism, prominently including Nancy Fraser, often claim that Marx’s critique of capitalism is class-essentialist and unduly narrow and that his theory of exploitation—which these critics allege is the essence of Marx’s theory—is inadequate for the purposes of understanding “extra-economic” forms of oppression. I disagree with these critics. Focusing on Fraser, my aim is to show precisely why the critics are …

The Prevalence Of Chronic Disease Risk Behaviors And Their Association With Hypertension In Racial/Ethnic Minorities: An Examination Of Nhanes Data 2015-2016, Oluyemi Farinu

Public Health Theses

INTRODUCTION: Insufficient physical activity, poor diet, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption are each associated with the prevalence of chronic diseases such as hypertension. However, the clustering or co-occurrence of these chronic disease risk behaviors with the prevalence of hypertension among different racial/ethnic groups has not been fully investigated. Understanding the significance of this relationship is essential for efforts in prevention, as well as the alleviation of disparities in hypertension.

AIM: To examine racial/ethnic differences in the relationship between clustered chronic disease risk behaviors and hypertension.

METHODS: Data was obtained from the 2015-2016 National Health and Nutrition …

Attentional Bias For Threat In Intergroup Anxiety, Michelle Rattinger

Psychology Theses

Threatening faces draw our attention with particular speed, a phenomenon commonly documented using behavioral measures such as the facial dot probe task. However, other aspects of the face that such tasks often fail to take into account, such as characteristics that signal race, also may influence threat perception. If dot probe tasks are to continue to serve as key measures of threat bias in research, we must understand whether and how the facial contexts in which angry expressions appear influence people’s attention to those expressions. The current study examined the ways in which emotional expression and facial race signifiers interact …

Race, Place, And Politics: Urban Renewal, Redevelopment, And Stories Of The Historic Buttermilk Bottom Neighborhood In Atlanta, John E. Williams

Geosciences Theses

This thesis explores connections between racialized politics, redevelopment, memory/historical significance, and the meaning of place. In particular, I focus on Buttermilk Bottom, the neighborhood formerly centered on the present location of the Atlanta Civic Center. Drawing on oral histories collected from former residents, historical newspaper accounts, archival materials, redevelopment plans, I trace the discourses about Buttermilk Bottom from the mid-twentieth century to the present, demonstrating ways in which Buttermilk Bottom was discursively constructed as a place of community for neighborhood residents, as a “slum” in need of revitalization by city planners and developers, and as prized real estate to be …

What’S Behind School Choice? Middle-Class Parents In France, Race, And Decisions Over Public Middle Schools, Anthony E. Healy

Sociology Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the role of race in school choice among French middle-class parents. It finds that institutional policies and individual practices combine to foster school segregation, which among immigrants may only be seen as racism. This qualitative study involves semi-structured interviews of 29 parents at three typical schools in the Parisian suburbs where a confluence of geographic and policy factors grants school choice impetus despite official restrictions. In building on a model from Ball (2003), the parents fall into four qualitative types in actions on school choice. Conducted amid a period of terrorist, political, and economic incidents in 2016 …

Whiteness In Black Spaces: An Extended Case Study Of Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Tiara Giddings

Sociology Theses

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been noted for their ability to create an environment that fosters black intellectuality, specifically for students who are systematically excluded from white academic spaces. At a time with heightened racism on college campuses, it is important to examine the purpose and significance of HBCUs in today’s perceived post racial society. Utilizing an extended case method, I explore how students at HBCUs discuss their experiences on campus and the extent to which HBCU students conceptualize race and racial events using the white racial frame and black anti-racists counter frames. Semi-structured interviews reveal a coexistence …

Dont Feel Touch, Vanessa Jagodinsky

Art and Design Theses

DONT FEEL TOUCH is an art exhibition and thesis that combines sculpture and performance within a single space. The show’s installation consists of three-dimensional art objects, painted panels, and soft sculptures. Each piece emerges from a series of experiential traumas that span from childhood to adulthood. Embodying the behavioral and emotional distress that suspends my journey to autonomy, the forms work together to act as a sculptural foundation for a live performance. The goal of my thesis work is to understand the psychosocial impact of early childhood trauma through instinctual making and performance.

In The Arena: Deep South Racial Threat And Contact, Kurt Hitzeman

Political Science Dissertations

Political Science offers one overarching paradigm of racial attitude formation and development for the South: group conflict and racial threat (Key 1949, Blumer 1958). In contrast, the theory of intergroup contact (Allport 1954) offers an interactionist prescription for alleviating prejudice formation, regardless of cause or nature. Within and outside the South, existing political research has largely discounted or ignored intergroup contact as a viable theoretical contribution. Additionally, the distinctions between prejudices (thoughts) and discrimination (behaviors) have been articulated unartfully. I develop a new structural theory of modern Southern white racism that clearly identifies the key individual-level pillars on which the …

Black On Both Sides: An Examination Of Race And Class In The Ghetto Mecca, Jonathan P. Grant

Sociology Dissertations

ABSTRACT

From Spike Lee’s School Daze to The Real Housewives of Atlanta, mainstream entertainment has portrayed Atlanta as a “black mecca,” largely due to its consortium of black colleges, expansion of minority-owned businesses and growing black middle class. This title is called into question with research showing that Atlanta maintains high levels of poverty and income inequality. While a disproportionate number of blacks in Atlanta and the United States live below the poverty line, 75 percent of blacks in the U.S. report income above the poverty line. However, most research on African Americans emphasizes disadvantaged communities and many stories …

Understanding African American Teachers' Perceptions Of African American Students Who Are Homeless, Sharhonda Davies

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the perceptions of African American in-service teachers and their beliefs about the academic, social and emotional needs of African American students who were homeless. While research supports the importance of teacher perceptions in building the teacher-student relationship at school (Powers-Costello & Swick, 2008), this research has been limited primarily to white female preservice elementary teachers. There has been little research in the area of African American in-service elementary teachers’ perceptions of students who are impacted by homelessness due to systematic racial disparity and poverty.

This study included three African American …

A Narrative Study: Understanding The Intersections Of Race, Class, Gender, And Sexuality In The Pathways To Crime And Incarceration In African American Women’S Lives, Rachelle A. Stewart

Africana Studies Theses

This thesis explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in African American women’s lives and the way public policy intervenes in their pathways to crime and incarceration, by way of personal life histories. By exploring their personal life narratives allows for finding a voice that can express a self-defined black woman’s standpoint. Black women’s narratives offer a unique insight into interlocking patterns of oppression that contribute to their incarceration, and how discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality extends into prison. Through the collection of five in-depth interviews, I examined how certain themes and how the intersection of …

Experiences Of Black Women In College Science Learning Spaces: A Critical Race Theory Perspective, Melissa P. Schoene

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

Multiple studies speak directly to the unique challenges women of color face in college learning spaces due to their intersectionality which include gender and racial discrimination, deficit-based thinking about their abilities, and negative stereotyping. In these studies, Black women are typically not disaggregated from other women of color so the results reflect the experiences of all women who do not identify as White, which includes Asian, American Indian, and Latina women. Intersectionality theories and Black Feminist Thought illustrate the ways Black women in the U.S. have created a collective, specialized knowledge based on their unique backgrounds, cultural traditions, perspectives and …

The Association Between History Of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus And Current Type 2 Diabetes Status: An Examination Of Nhanes Data 2011-2014, Linda Tran

Public Health Theses

Background: Diabetes is a growing chronic disease that affects more than 29 million adults in the United States and 422 million adults globally. Women with a history of gestational diabetes (GDM) are identified to be at higher risk for developing subsequent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The prevalence of GDM varies based on the data collection method, response rate, and diagnostic criteria. The aim of this study is to examine the association between history of GDM diagnosis and current T2DM status and how the relationship differs based on the participant’s age, race, and BMI.

Methods: Data from the 2011-2012 and …

"Big Black Beasts": Race And Masculinity In Gay Pornography, Desmond Goss

Sociology Dissertations

Although there is a good foundation of feminist research at the intersection of performative labor, pornography, and sexuality, there are few (if any) published studies that examine race in porn content intended for gay men’s consumption. What’s more, existing research samples solely from corporatized porn, which is expressly produced, scripted, and directed. Bound by the conventions of the market, however, corporate pornography must abide by a consumer demand that reflects white machinations of black sexuality rather than the self-proclaimed sexual identity of African American men. Instead, I employ an exploratory content analysis of pornographic videos categorized as “ebony” on a …

Blame Attribution In Rape Crimes: The Effects Of Willing Substance Use, Race, And Rape Myth Acceptance, Nedeljko Golubovic

Counseling and Psychological Services Dissertations

Rape is a highly prevalent crime, and it is one of the most severe traumatic events experienced by women. Previous researchers have found that, unlike other crimes, blame attribution in rape cases is inconsistent and influenced by many external elements (Bieneck & Krahe, 2011; Grubb & Turner, 2012; Masser, Lee, & McKimmie, 2010; Stewart & Jacquin, 2010). In this study, the influence of willing substance use and race on attribution of blame from a sample of 316 undergraduate students attending a large, Southeastern, public, urban university was examined. More specifically, results from this investigation described how the type of substance …

A Multi-Level Discourse Analysis Of African American, Middle School Girls? Science Identity Development, Katherine Wade

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

This research argues that the lack of African American women in science careers is the result of a nuanced and complicated process and can only be adequately addressed through consideration of multiple levels of discourse. Specifically, a better understanding of macro level discourses that are present in and circulated through schools and work to position African American girls in ways that are outside of science learning is necessary. This research used a critical ethnographic approach to explore the science experiences of African American middle school girls. Data were collected on the macro (school wide), meso (classroom and after school program), …

National Identity, Social Justice, And Internal Minorities: A Critique Of David Miller's Liberal Nationalism, Shaila Bora

Philosophy Theses

In this thesis I argue that David Miller has not successfully generated an account of nationalism that is liberal. I first present Miller’s account the nation, national identity and national culture. I then draw out how the ability of internal minorities to contest repugnant elements of national identity or culture is deeply ties to the liberal character of nationalism. I then argue that the exclusion of particular identities that is required by Miller’s public sphere deprives internal minorities of the epistemic resources they need to challenge repugnant elements of national culture or identity. This puts the liberal character of Miller’s …

Examining The Integration And Use Of Culturally Responsive Mathematics Pedagogy In Preservice Teachers Reflections And Practice: Implications For Black Children, Natasha Nicola Ramsay-Jordan

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

Prospective teachers of diverse students such as Black children, need to have opportunities in their professional study to develop the shared knowledge, perceptions and attitudes required for effective implementation of culturally responsive mathematics pedagogy. This instrumental qualitative case study began investigative and exploratory work through the coupling of qualitative research methodology and critical race theory to examine four preservice secondary mathematics teachers’ (PSMTs) experiences using culturally responsive mathematics pedagogy (CRMP) in classrooms to teach Black children. The research questions addressed were: How do PSMTs negotiate their experiences of teaching mathematics to Black children while immersed in CRMP professional learning activities …